Iceland: Police shoot 1st polar bear sighted in years

Police sharpshooters killed a polar bear that had come ashore on the northwestern tip of Iceland on Thursday. 

Polar bear sightings in Iceland are rare, with the last recorded case in 2016. A resident in a remote holiday home on the coast in Hofdastrond in the Westfjords region had alerted police to the animal's presence. 

"It's not something we like to do," Westfjords Police Chief Helgi Jensson told the Associated Press on Friday. "In this case, you can see in the picture, the bear was very close to a summer house. There was an old woman in there." 

Jensson said the owner, who was alone, locked herself upstairs while the bear rummaged through her garbage.

It's considered possible that the bear traveled with the help of an iceberg to Iceland from Greenland, a journey of several hundred kilometers that is likely out of the range even of a land mammal capable of swimming for days at a time. Icelandic national broadcaster RUV said on Friday that a number of icebergs have recently been spotted off the Icelandic coast that originated in Greenland.

Authorities say relocating to Greenland was a non-starter

"The intention is to ensure the safety of the people who may be in the area. Residents in the area are urged to stay indoors and use caution until police issue further announcements," police for the Westfjords region said of the incident.

Police later said they ultimately had no choice but to kill the bear after consultation with the country's Environment Agency. 

Authorities said the bear appeared healthy and weighed between 150 and 200 kilograms (about 330 to 440 pounds). This would appear to suggest it was either a female or young; adult males tend to be quite considerably heavier.

Its body was transported to the Institute of National History in the capital, Rejkiavik, for further examination. 

Authorities cited a number of factors when saying it was not possible or practical to try to sedate the animal and return it to Greenland.

These included the costs and the risks, but also the probability of Danish authorities — Greenland is an autonomous territory but also part of Denmark — refusing permission either on the grounds of concerns about disease, or because of the local population not being keen on a larger polar bear population on its glacier.

The endangered animals, whose habitat and hunting grounds in the Arctic Circle is reducing in size amid climate change and melting ice caps, are fierce predators. That said, attacks on humans are fairly rare, because the two species are seldom in direct contact.  

Prior sightings in 2016 and 2008

The last polar bear sighting in Iceland was in 2016 and also ended with the animal being shot.

A pair of the bears also found their way to the island in 2008. Authorities decided at that time to make killing polar bears, despite their endangered status, standard practice if they come ashore, citing the risks to people and to livestock. They also said at the time that the bears could not have survived long in Iceland anyway, given the lack of sea ice they usually use to hunt and a limited food supply.

They said the environment would not have enabled females to give birth or raise cubs.

msh/sms (AP, dpa)