The series of sad news about dead­ly encoun­ters bet­ween polar bears and humans in Spits­ber­gen does not stop: on August 09, a polar bear was shot in the bay Sel­vå­gen on Prins Karls For­land on Spitsbergen’s west coast.

The polar bear was a young fema­le, 2 years old, weig­hing 155 kg.

Sin­ce August 01, 6 Rus­si­an sci­en­tists were based in a camp in Sel­vå­gen. As far as known, the polar bear was for the first time in the vici­ni­ty of the camp on August 09. As she was in a distance of 130 met­res (yes: one hundred and thir­ty met­res!), one of the sci­en­tists fired a war­ning shot from a fla­re gun. Imme­dia­te­ly the­re­af­ter, ano­ther fired two sharp shots from a rif­le. At least one of the­se shots must have hit the polar bear on a distance of 130 m.

The woun­ded ani­mal went into the water whe­re she died soon. The Rus­si­ans towed her to the shore with a rope.

This hap­pen­ed around 10 p.m. The Sys­sel­man­nen was infor­med about 12 hours later. The law requi­res to inform the aut­ho­ri­ties as soon as pos­si­ble in such a case.

Once local inves­ti­ga­ti­ons are com­ple­ted, the case will be for­ward­ed the the fede­ral pro­se­cu­tor in Troms og Finn­mark (north Nor­way).

Fur­ther details have not yet been published, but the distance of 130 m and the short time bet­ween the war­ning shot and the sharp shots may indi­ca­te that no serious attempt was made to sca­re the bear away and save her life.

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten

The case of the polar bear fami­ly shot in June at Aus­t­fj­ord­ne­set has been mat­ter of this blog in two pre­vious artic­les (click here for the first one and here for the second one).

The ver­dict of the public pro­se­cu­tor in Trom­sø has now been published. The shoo­ter has got a fine of 20,000.00 NOK (just abo­ve 2100 Euro) becau­se of negli­gence (“uakt­som­het”). The man has accept­ed the fine, the ver­dict is accor­din­gly in force.

Polar bear fami­ly shot at Aus­t­fj­ord­ne­set – Cour­se of action

The polar bear mother and her cub had been around the hut alre­a­dy for a while, when the shoo­ter wan­ted to sca­re her away with a rub­ber bul­let. The the wea­pon, pro­ba­b­ly a pump-action shot­gun, was loa­ded with a mix­tu­re of sharp ammu­ni­ti­on and rub­ber bul­lets. The shoo­ter did not know exact­ly how the wea­pon was loa­ded and fired a sharp car­tridge rather than a rub­ber bul­let, kil­ling the polar bear mother ins­tead of sca­ring her away with a harm­less hit.

The­re was no acu­te dan­ger to human life during the situa­ti­on, as the shoo­ter was on the roof of the cabin and the second per­son insi­de.

Both trap­pers are back on Aus­t­fj­ord­ne­set and will con­ti­nue their win­tering. A few days ago, ano­ther polar bear that could not be scared away from the sta­ti­on area had been tran­qui­li­zed and flown out to Nord­aus­t­land by the aut­ho­ri­ties.

Source: Sys­sel­man­nen