Polar bear kills man in Norway’s Arctic Svalbard archipelago
OSLO: A polar bear has killed a Dutch man on Norway’s Arctic Svalbard archipelago, local officials said on Friday, the sixth fatal attack in almost 50 years in the region.
According to experts, the shrinking icecap has reduced the polar bears’ preferred seal hunting grounds, pushing them to approach populated areas in their search for food.
The incident took place overnight in a camping area near Svalbard’s main town of Longyearbyen, located 1,300 kilometres from the North Pole. The 38-year-old victim was found seriously injured in his tent and died shortly afterwards. He had been working at the campsite, according to the local Svalbardposte newspaper. Other people at the scene shot at the bear, which was later found dead in the parking lot of the local airport.
In Svalbard, which is also known as Spitzberg, people are advised to carry a weapon when outside urban areas.
“The bears generally stay away from humans. We are not at the top of their menu, as they prefer to feed on seals,” Jon Aars, a researcher at the Norwegian Polar Institute, told AFP. “But they are also opportunistic animals, and if they are hungry and are desperate enough, we can become their prey,” he added.
According to a 2015 tally, the archipelago is home to about 1,000 polar bears, a protected species since 1973. The most recent previous fatality occurred in 2011 when a bear attacked a group of British campers on a school trip. A 17-year-old student was killed.