Polar bear in buil­ding on Kapp Lin­né (Isfjord Radio)

A polar bear bro­ke into a buil­ding on Kapp Linné/Isfjord Radio.

The old radio sta­ti­on pro­vi­ded radio­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on bet­ween the sett­le­ments of Spits­ber­gen and the Nor­we­gi­an main­land. It was disu­s­ed when a glass fib­re cable was laid to enable much fas­ter traf­fic of much big­ger volu­mes of data. Sin­ce the late 1990s, Kapp Lin­né is used as a litt­le wild­ner­ness hotel on the west coast of Spits­ber­gen.

Curr­ent­ly the­re are 5 staff and 9 guests at Kapp Lin­né. Sun­day mor­ning around 7 a.m., the mana­ger, Malin Stark, saw that a door was bro­ken in, soon the­re­af­ter, she heard sus­pi­cious noi­ses from a sto­rage room, as Sval­bard­pos­ten reports.

Around 9 a.m., the polar bear was still insi­de the buil­ding. Sys­sel­man­nen and Nor­we­gi­an Polar Insti­tu­te have per­so­nell en rou­te to Kapp Lin­né to sca­re the bear away or to tran­qui­li­ze him. Shoo­ting the bear is the worst case sce­na­rio, which the spe­cia­lists will want to avo­ide if pos­si­ble by any means.

Polar bear on Kapp Lin­né (Isfjord Radio). Archi­ve image aut­hor.

Per­sons were, as far as known, not in imme­dia­te dan­ger. It is, howe­ver, pos­si­ble, that the bear is under stress; it may be inju­red or may­be it does not find the way out again. The polar bear is assu­med to be a lar­ge male.

Polar bear visits on Kapp Lin­né are not an ever­y­day event, but they do occur more or less regu­lar­ly. This aut­hor, who spent a winter/spring sea­son working on Kapp Lin­né when he was still very young, was also able to make such expe­ri­ence. But a bear insi­de one of the buil­dings is defi­ni­te­ly a rare event.

Adden­dum: Sun­day mor­ning near 11 a.m. the Sys­sel­man­nen infor­med that the polar bear had left Kapp Lin­né and is on the way nor­thwards.

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