Recen­ty, a sur­pri­sing obser­va­ti­on has been made in Wij­defjord (cen­tral Spits­ber­gen), when a polar bear kil­led a reinde­er – so far, it has lar­ge­ly been assu­med that polar bears eat dead or inju­red reinde­er, but don’t hunt ani­mals that are in good shape. This rai­ses the ques­ti­on if the obser­ved beha­viour is real­ly as rare as assu­med (alt­hough this was not the very first obser­va­ti­on of its kind) or if it is more com­mon.

Should it turn out that polar bears are actual­ly able to catch reinde­er, then this might be an advan­ta­ge for the bears in case their main habi­tat, the drift ice, con­ti­nues to shrink due to cli­ma­te chan­ge.

Source: Tom­my San­dal (Austfjordnes/Wijdefjord), published in Sval­bard­pos­ten