A polar bear that dared to live in a residential area on Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula this weekend, triggering a public safety alert, was killed by gunfire, authorities said on Sunday. Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police, said they were first called to the town of Madeleine-Center on Saturday morning after residents reported seeing a polar bear near their homes. Sophie Bonneville, owner of the local café in Grande-Vallée, said her husband was taking their dog for a morning walk when a polar bear appeared less than 30 meters from their house. “It was my dog, Boris, who first saw the bear,” Ms. Bonneville said, adding that the dog was so frightened that he tried to run to their family barn. “The bear did not move for a few seconds and then turned to return to the forest,” he said. Sylvain Marois, commander of the county’s southeastern wildlife protection service, said a team of toy keepers and a rescue team were involved in the search, as well as a helicopter and several drones. Mr Marois said the bear was finally spotted at 8:15 a.m. on Sunday following a report for a view just off Route 132 at the Madeleine-Center. About 15 minutes later, the polar bear was dead. “We are not proud of that,” said Maroua. He said his team can safely neutralize and transport smaller bears such as black bears, but polar bears are a different story. “A bear like this can run up to 60, 70 kilometers per hour and is really aggressive,” he said. Mr Maroua said polar bears have occasionally been spotted offshore in the lower north coast of Quebec and in areas such as James Bay, but not on the south bank of the St. Lawrence River. In this image courtesy of Sophie Bonneville, a piece of polar bear is compared to a human foot in Madeline-Center, Que., On April 30, 2022. SOPHIE BONNEVILLE / AFP / Getty Images Polar bears live in the Arctic sea ice, choosing to live on land only during the Canadian summers, when the sea ice melts, said Alysa McCall, a Polar Bears International scientist. However, he said polar bear sightings could become more frequent as more Arctic ice is lost due to climate change. “This, of course, is a big concern for Canadians, because we have two-thirds of the polar bears in the world and we have many, many small coastal communities, some of which have never seen polar bears before, but now it may be “Let’s see some in the future,” he said. Polar bears, he said, are mobile animals, which means they are sure to end up in unexpected places. But whether the polar bear spotted in Quebec this weekend “turned around and followed its nose in the wrong place or not, this is a completely unusual place to see a polar bear,” he said. Safely removing and transporting polar bears back to their habitat is not an easy task. A polar bear trap can cost over $ 10,000 and the cost of lethal and non-lethal deterrents and helicopters for proper bear surveillance can increase rapidly. Cities like Churchill, Man., Which are famous in Canada for their polar bear populations, are more likely to have the funding, resources, and trained professionals to safely remove polar bears from public places. But Ms McCall said it would not be fair to expect smaller communities to have the equipment or money at their disposal to safely trap polar bears in an instant. “Non-lethal choices are great, but in the end, of course, human life comes first and foremost,” he said. “One thing that needs to happen in the coming years is wider support for these communities with more options on how to deal with polar bears.” With files from the Canadian Press Our Morning and Afternoon Newsletters are compiled by Globe editors, giving you a brief overview of the day’s most important headlines. Register today.
