Anaes­the­ti­sed polar bear died during trans­port

The polar bear that was anaes­the­ti­sed and flown out last night died during the trans­port in the heli­c­op­ter, accor­ding to the Sys­sel­man­nen.

The cau­se of death is curr­ent­ly unknown. A post­mor­tem exami­na­ti­on is expec­ted to cla­ri­fy this within a few days.

An anaes­the­ti­sed bear during pre­pa­ra­ti­ons for a heli­c­op­ter flight to Nord­aus­t­land (archi­ve image, 2016).

The bear is said to have been a fema­le that was not tag­ged.

The­re is always a remai­ning risk inher­ent to anaes­the­sy, espe­ci­al­ly as the weight and health con­di­ti­on of the “pati­ent” are most­ly unknown or can, at best, be rough­ly esti­ma­ted, some­thing that must obvious­ly have been dif­fi­cult last night in dark­ness.

Any­thing bey­ond this is mere spe­cu­la­ti­on at the time being until the results of the post­mor­tem are available.

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