Once again polar bear shot in self defence

After a polar bear had alrea­dy been shot in self defence in late March, a simi­lar inci­dent occur­red only a few weeks later in Isbuk­ta on the sou­thern east coast of Spits­ber­gen. Two per­sons ski­ing Spits­ber­gen „på langs“ (the who­le north-south distance of the main island) were cam­ping on the ice in Isbuk­ta when a bear came near and tur­ned out to be impos­si­ble to sca­re away by noi­se and other means. The two felt threa­tened and shot the bear.

The bear was young and with a weight of 119 kg eit­her not ful­ly grown or not well fed or a com­bi­na­ti­on of both.

As the case from March, the inci­dent will rou­ti­nely be inves­ti­ga­ted by the local poli­ce (Sys­sel­man­nen). Polar bears are com­ple­te­ly pro­tec­ted in Spits­ber­gen and may only be shot in self defence. The Sys­sel­man­nen has alrea­dy men­tio­ned that the cir­cum­s­tan­ces point towards a case of legal self defence.

Source: Sys­sel­man­nen

By the way, my new book is in print and it can now be orde­red 🙂 it is a pho­to book with the tit­le “Nor­we­gens ark­ti­scher Nor­den (1): Spitz­ber­gen – vom Polar­licht bis zur Mit­ter­nachts­son­ne”, with Ger­man text Click here for fur­ther details!