We moved to the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, in the Arctic. There it is estimated that there are about 1000 polar bears (data from 2015) that grow and live freely away from all civilization, this being their area of residence and, since 1973, a special area since these bears began to be considered as a species protected and, consequently, this area began to be considered a “refuge”.
This archipelago is a desert of glaciers and ice caps that lies between Norway and the North Pole . Excursions to this area are becoming more and more frequent and according to the words collected by the BBC from a tourism agent in the area: “There are very strict rules, since the islands are visited by many polar bears in the summer, so all we must be vigilant when we are on the ground. “
The events occurred when a tourist boat docked in the archipelago . When docking and, according to the words of the witnesses and the German company Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, owner of the ship, one of the guides on board was “surprised” by a polar bear to which another of the guides, from the boat, chose for shooting in, in his own words, “self-defense” as reported to the agency France Presse by commissioner Ole Jakob Malmo, from the island of Spitzberg, where the incident took place.
The guide who was surprised was transferred by helicopter to Longyearbyen (the regional capital) and then to Tromsø and, according to instructions from the hospital, is stable .
But … now we ask you where does the limit lie? We are talking about a serious attack by an animal , obviously, and it is a joy that the guide is well, but that animal was in its habitat, where some tourists wanted to go to, probably, take some photos. That animal is dead for the simple whim of “invading” an area that is its area. Social networks did not take long to denounce the event and have labeled it an “abhorrent” episode.
We do not have absolute power, we must make people aware that we cannot invade animal habitats at ease. They instinctively may feel attacked and, in contrast to what happened, attack out of “self-defense.”
In addition, the brutal warming of the Arctic , largely caused by human hand, has changed the behavior of bears and their metabolisms , since the reduction in sea ice forces them to spend more time on land and hunt in places closer to, say, “more touristy” areas .
In the last 40 years there have been 5 deadly attacks caused by bears . The last one happened in 2011 when a bear surprised a group of 14 people who were camping in the archipelago. A minor under 17 years old died. The bear was also killed.
