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LETHARGIC BEAR LINGERING: Polar bear spotted Sunday still (slowly) wandering around Adventdalen without disrupting much, but extra caution urged due to near-total darkness

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Photo by Marcel Schütz

A polar bear first spotted near Longyearbyen on Saturday is still lingering two days later in Adventdalen, where it’s not moving around much or disturbing much, according to observers and The Governor of Svalbard.

The governor, which tracked the bear using a helicopter and vehicles on Sunday when it was spotted in the cabin area across the bay from Longyearbyen and moving into Adventdalen, sent the helicopter out again Monday to monitor the bear’s activities in the valley.

“Our governor is always keeping a good eye on the animal that has been roaming the area since yesterday,” Marcel Schütz, a local tour guide who posted a photo of the helicopter’s movements on Monday, wrote in a post on his Facebook page. “I hope the polar bear enjoys quieter times soon…how about a nice glacier front?”

The bear appears to be a large male and because it is not in an area where it is considered an imminent threat the governor has not contacted the Norwegian Polar Institute about removal options, Police Chief Lt. Magnar Silseth told Svalbardposten. The governor is urging people to exercise caution in the area, especially since Longyearbyen is now in nearly 24-hour continual darkness.

About Post Author

Mark Sabbatini

I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation. Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads. But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
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