Polar bear ventures into Quebec, Canada prompting officials to warn residents
- Quebec provincial police urged people to stay indoors after the bear’s very rare appearance. In Canada, polar bears are listed as ‘vulnerable’ species
- A 2020 study in Nature Climate Change said climate change could lead to the bears’ extinction as global warming causes the melting of the Arctic ice pack
A polar bear was spotted on Saturday in the Quebec region of Canada, prompting wildlife officials to warn residents of a small town stunned by this very rare appearance.
The bear – whose species has become a symbol of the dangers of global warming – was seen in the morning hours in Madeleine-Centre in the Gaspesia region, a peninsula along the south bank of the Saint Lawrence River, witnesses said.
As of Saturday afternoon, officials were still trying to find the animal.
“The dog was barking and I heard my partner yell, ‘There’s a bear, there’s a bear!’” said Sophie Bonneville, who lives in the town of 2,000 people located 800km (500 miles) east of Montreal.
Quebec provincial police put out a tweet warning people about the bear sighting and urging them to stay indoors.
Bonneville said nobody in town had ever seen a polar bear so far south, not even wildlife officials.
“People thought it was a joke,” she told Agence France-Presse.
