By Vincent Jolly
Posted yesterday at 6:22pm, updated yesterday at 8:41pm
Frost bear (Isbjorn N23992) and two of her cubs in 2013. Asgeir Helgestad
A month and a half after the euthanasia of the marine mammal that was disturbing the port of Oslo, a similar debate over a female polar bear is currently stirring the Svalbard archipelago.
His real name ? Isbjorn N23992: a 17-year-old female polar bear from the mountainous archipelago of Svalbard, a Norwegian territory between Greenland and King George Island, in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. Last September, the animal, nicknamed Frost, broke into holiday cabins with its young again in this region, which is very popular with polar tourism. Why ? Probably to look for food there.
On the Svalbardposten website detailing the case, photos of interiors of destroyed buildings follow those of a polar bear standing by a shack door. With these incidents piling up and the arrival of the polar night plunging the archipelago into darkness for several weeks, a local elected official believes it may be preferable to euthanize Frost to avoid tragedy — particularly when children are off to school . Although Frost hasn’t hurt anyone to this day.
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