Cruise ship guards' killing of polar bear sparks international outrage

[cab67]

5. sad, but...

I have several friends who do field work in polar bear territory. Their funding is contingent on demonstrating that they own, and know how to use, a rifle. None has ever had to actually shoot a polar bear, thankfully, but there have been some close calls.

Polar bears aren't afraid of humans the way other bears are, and although attacks on humans are unlikely right after a polar bear has eaten, it doesn't take outright starvation to prompt a polar bear to treat a human as prey.

We should be doing everything we can to conserve and protect the polar bear as a species. That does not mean, however, that we can prevent all human-polar bear interactions from going badly, as this one did.