The polar bear fami­ly that has kept Lon­gye­ar­by­en exci­ted and the Sys­sel­man­nen busy over seve­ral days now stays in the vici­ni­ty of town and has even been within Lon­gye­ar­by­en last night.

A first attempt to move them away in Advent­da­len towards the east on Satur­day night pro­ved unsuc­cessful. Then the Sys­sel­man­nen tried to move them to the nor­thwest, along the nor­t­hern side of Advent­fjor­den towards Rev­ne­set. The bears then sett­led down in Advent­da­len, not far from Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

During the night to Tues­day, the have been in the lower part of Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Foot­prints were seen near the UNIS/Svalbardmuseum buil­ding, an area with a lot of traf­fic and within a few hundred met­res of resi­den­ti­al are­as.

Fur­ther tracks were seen near Isdam­men (the lake at the road in Advent­da­len) and at 06.15 the three polar bears were seen in Advent­da­len near End­a­len. The poli­ce (Sys­sel­man­nen) is out with all available forces to obser­ve the polar bears to make sure they are not get­ting clo­se to inha­bi­ted are­as again. The poor wea­ther with wind, drif­ting snow and dark­ness makes the situa­ti­on in End­a­len quite chal­len­ging. Heli­c­op­ter assis­tance is curr­ent­ly not available due to the wea­ther.

Peo­p­le are urged to be alert as long as the polar bear fami­ly is in the area.

Source: Sys­sel­man­nen