The new year starts with sad news: the polar bear that had been seen several times clo­se to and wit­hin Lon­gye­ar­by­en was shot on New Year’s Day at 04 a.m. by poli­ce for­ces (Sys­sel­man­nen).

Just after mid­ni­ght, the bear had been seen in Advent­da­len clo­se to the sett­le­ment after it had disap­peared in Bjørn­da­len in bad wea­ther on Satur­day. It seems as if the Sys­sel­man­nen initi­al­ly mana­ged to sca­re it away from Lon­gye­ar­by­en last night.

Polar bear in cen­tral Lon­gye­ar­by­en (Thurs­day morning).
Pho­to © Sys­sel­man­nen på Sval­bard.

The bear was shot in Hanas­kog­da­len, on the north side of Advent­da­len, at 04 a.m. Accord­ing to a press release by the Sys­sel­man­nen, the bear was not shot in a acu­te situa­ti­on. The beha­viour of the bear, which had been seen four times clo­se to or even wit­hin the sett­le­ment area, had been con­si­de­red and the offi­cial con­clu­si­on was that aut­ho­ri­ties were not able to gua­ran­tee public safe­ty with the avail­ab­le for­ces any­mo­re.

The opti­on to tran­qui­li­ze the bear and to aen­esthe­ti­se the bear to fly it out to some­whe­re more remo­te had also been con­si­de­red, but dis­car­ded due to the lack of absen­se of spe­cia­lists who were not in Lon­gye­ar­by­en at that time due to the Christ­mas holi­days.