Authorities say a rare polar bear spotted in Iceland was shot by police after being considered a threat.
Archived version: https://archive.md/EZwKf
We can all agree that it’s a tragedy that this animal died.
The other consideration is that polar bears are amongst the most relentless and vicious predators around. A polar bear around an inhabited area is very much a serious safety threat. Iceland doesn’t have any animal predators and therefore also wouldn’t have the trained people or equipment necessary to deal with neutralizing and relocating this bear.
I would have liked to have seen the animal safely moved. But I suspect there’s more context to this story that we don’t have beyond the headline.
A bit more context from reading the article
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the bear was actively going through the trash of a woman’s summer house while she was there which is why it was reported
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the Iceland environmental agency actively decided to not try and relocate it, likely due to how expensive it would be to take back to Greenland
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the bear is also being studied for potential diseases/parasites, how healthy it was, body fat, etc. which is nice I guess
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