New around yesterday was that Polar bear wandered far inland and was hanging around the East Grip Ice Core research camp – had to be put down. Sad for all involved, – so posting the video above. Bears need a win.
Update July 7th 23:45(L): We have had a polar bear wandering round the camp at EGRIP. To ensure the safety of the team and following approval from the Greenland authorities, we had to shoot the bear. The bear is dead and everybody is safe in the dome. The team in camp needs rest now and more news will be issued tomorrow.
Meanwhile, a new science team has shown up in Kangerlussuaq, the Black and Bloom team from the UK is following the ice albedo, black carbon, ice microbiology line of inquiry. I had chatted with team leader Jim McQuaid before coming, and did some running around for the team prior to their arrival, so weather permitting, hope to hitch a ride on the Sikorsky when they do their put-in this week.
Just finished a new video featuring Greenland footage from this week, hopefully Yale will go for it and it can be posted very soon.
Working on interviews this weekend, as the weather has closed in somewhat. More on this soon.
This is sad, but probably not much that could have been done otherwise. Frankly, a polar bear wandering 400 km inland over the ice sheet is astonishing. If the second photo is of the bear it appears well-fed and healthy… perhaps a big adult male going for a long summer stroll for whatever reasons motivate bears?
Why shoot it if it hadn’t attacked?
They are powerful, intelligent, stealthy carnivores that are known to stalk people and break into tents and lightly constructed buildings. In the almost universal case in which the camp lacked a tranquilizer gun and the personnel to use it, thereby not having the ability to move an immobilized bear by net and helicopter to a safe distance (in this case, >200 km), the camp managers would have had little choice.
Note that the bears are known to have excellent sense of smell, and it may have followed smells from the camp (such as cooking odors from the kitchen) over very long distances in the pristine air of the ice sheet.
I was told that tranquilization is not a solution for exactly this reason. The bear, knowing the location, would return.
Yes, it’s too bad about the bear—-getting killed just for doing what bears do, but it’s inevitable when humans place their own own needs before that of bears and other living things. Polar bears are not the first living thing that has gotten in man’s way and paid the price.
In this case, the humans DO need to be there to study the impacts of AGW in the arctic—-if the arctic continues to warm as it has, most of the bears will be doomed anyway—-perhaps the researchers will gather some data that will help turn the tide against AGW and prolong the agony (for both the bears and humans).
Humans should be fined in some way..Start up a collection to send food to starving Bears