Iceland: Police shoot 1st polar bear sighted in years – DW – 09/20/2024
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Police have shot and killed a polar bear that came ashore in northwestern Iceland, the first sighting of a polar bear there since 2016. It might have hitched a ride from Greenland on a floating iceberg.

Police have shot and killed a polar bear that came ashore in northwestern Iceland, the first sighting of a polar bear there since 2016. It might have hitched a ride from Greenland on a floating iceberg.

    • TransplantedSconie@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      1 month ago

      I’d like to point out to you that Neanderthals and the premodern man did not have high-powered hunting rifles and didn’t live in almost every conceivable area on the planet with those hunting rifles.

      • troed@fedia.io
        1·
        1 month ago

        You’re absolutely correct. Since we stopped allowing hunting* the number of polar bears has grown consistently.

        Historically, overhunting was the polar bears’ greatest threat. From the 1800s up through the 1960s, commercial and later sport hunters greatly reduced polar bear numbers. Populations rebounded in most places after the five polar bear nations signed the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears. The Agreement halted commercial hunting and significantly curtailed sport hunting.

        https://polarbearsinternational.org/news-media/articles/why-is-polar-bear-hunting-allowed

        *) with caveats, as the article is really about

    • Drusas@fedia.io
      2·
      1 month ago

      That’ll work out a lot better for them if people don’t just shoot them every time they see them on land.