Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Landscape & Nature Photography => Topic started by: Josh-H on March 20, 2015, 04:29:45 am
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If you have seen the news over the last few days there was a Polar bear just shot dead in Svalbard as a result of irresponsible tourist behaviour.
http://blog.jholko.com (http://blog.jholko.com)
I photographed this very bear only a few days ago as it was happily playing around and on this piece of blue ice. The bear was shot because ignorant tourists set up a tent camp in an area the bear was known to be hunting.
I just wanted to share this photograph as this was a tragedy that could have so easily been avoided.
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Sad story...
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Yes thanks for sharing Josh.
Reminds me when I was in Africa in 2013 when an elephant was shot in Kruger National Park after being cruelly provoked by two stupid tourists in a hatchback.
Later that same month in the Okavango delta I witnessed a German tourist teasing a bull elephant at a lodge (won't mention which).
The rangers chased the elephant off but as far as I was concerned if anyone needed to be shot it was the tourist!
I was later told by the rangers that this elephant had nearly killed one of their own about six months prior.
Basically if anyone wants to play the dumb tourist in a wilderness area then someone is going to get killed.
Tony Jay
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Sad story, but a great photograph, and the second one, with the text, a powerful message. Maybe it should be given to every visiting group.
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Thanks for sharing, Josh. Very poignant.
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Josh, such a sad story and reading your blog has moved me to tears as well. Such a shame that a majestic animal had to be ended because of the stupidity of some tourists.
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Basically if anyone wants to play the dumb tourist in a wilderness area then someone is going to get killed.
...preferably the dumb tourist.
Thanks for sharing this sad story and your wonderful photo, Josh.
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A few facts, to put things into perspective: there are about 2500 locals there, 1500 tourists for the solar eclipse, and... 3000 bears. On avarage, every year 3 bears get killed in self defense. That would be 0.1% of the bear population. The last human killed by a bear was in 2011, a British boy on a school trip. "Stupid, ignorant and arrogant" tourists did exactly as told by authorities: carried a shotgun when out. Nothing more, nothing less. Obviously, the authorities think that 0.1% is an acceptable compromise between conservation and protection of human life. If not, they would have instituted a system of permits, trained guides, required protocols, etc.
However, not wishing an injured man to be fine is... is... (he takes a deep breath and decides to observe the forum decorum).
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Beside camping too close to the bear's prowling grounds, most likely, there was some food or smelly gas in the tent. The curious polar bear like all other bear species was attracted by the smell, went to investigate and started to pull the middle one of the three bodies out from the tent. After all, from a bear perspective, anything putrid inside a heavy sleeping bag resembles a seal. When surprised by the squirming body in the sleeping bag, his natural reaction was the "attack".
Bears have 7 times more powerful sense of smell than a dog and can detect an aromatic Prague Sausage over a mile away.
Most bear encounters are caused by surprising a bear and usually can be prevented. Understanding bear behavior and recognizing bear sign are important and basic safety rules should be mandatory when hiking or camping in bear country (applies to black, brown, and white bears).
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/misc/bears/bearsaf.html
EDIT:
With over 2,000 tourists as reported currently in this area, such accidents are bound to happen.
The polar bear that in 2011 killed in the same area (outside of Longyearbyen) a young Brit, injured four other people, two of them more seriously than Moravec in this year's attack. As mentioned by Slobodan above, three bears are killed every year in this area in "self-defense". This compares with 15 deaths of grizzly bears in Alberta last year, that were struck by vehicles on highways, shot in self-defence or killed illegally. The current grizzly population in entire province of Alberta is estimated at only about 700, so the relative killing of grizzlies there is twenty times more alarming that of polar bears.
According to the local law, all tourists outside of the settlements in Spitsbergen should be accompanied by a local armed guide. The group of six Czechs went on their own and although they strung a bear alarm fence around their tents, the relatively small bear managed to squeeze under the fence without triggering the fireworks. Similarly, the group in 2001 bear attack installed also a wire alarm fence around their camping area, which failed as well. Either poor quality alarm fences, or insufficient knowledge in setting it up.
The shots from the pistol fired by a woman in the next tent scared the bear who ran away but the inflicted injuries were serious enough for bear's survival and it had to be killed by the local police. After being treated in the hospital, Moravec said that he feels fine, is looking forward to shoot the solar eclipse and would enjoy returning to that area in the future.
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I'm fine with tourists interacting with polar bears, just take the guns away.
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Yosemite 2014 Bear Facts -- "This year, 25 bears have been hit by vehicles! (http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/bearfacts.htm) (Sixteen bears were hit by cars last year.)"
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I photographed this very bear only a few days ago as it was happily playing around and on this piece of blue ice. The bear was shot because ignorant tourists set up a tent camp in an area the bear was known to be hunting.
The shooting of a bear is terribly sad, but how do you know it was the same one? I wouldn't like to be considered ursist1 but they all look alike to me.
Jeremy
1if that's a word
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The shooting of a bear is terribly sad, but how do you know it was the same one? I wouldn't like to be considered ursist1 but they all look alike to me.
Jeremy
1if that's a word
Because I have photos showing the two ear tags in the bears ear that match up with the tags in the bear that was shot.
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The shooting of a bear is terribly sad, but how do you know it was the same one? I wouldn't like to be considered ursist1 but they all look alike to me.
Actually, many bears have distinctive features and can be told apart - different size, body shape (males/females/juvenile), walk, shape of head, some discolorations or other marks. And as Josh mentioned, also by ear tags. I wonder, what is the percentage of tagged bears.
For the bears, it's much harder to detect the difference between an American or a Norwegian.
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Because I have photos showing the two ear tags in the bears ear that match up with the tags in the bear that was shot.
Fair enough. Just wondered.
Jeremy
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Thanks for posting this, Josh. The percentage of ignorant people rises exponentially with our greater world population.
Two quotes, and I do not mean to take away from the seriousness of the topic:
"If it's tourist season, why can't we shoot them?"
"Arm the animals - make it a fair fight."
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Yosemite 2014 Bear Facts -- "This year, 25 bears have been hit by vehicles! (http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/bearfacts.htm) (Sixteen bears were hit by cars last year.)"
You can not compare Black Bears with threatened Polar Bears.
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The governor of Svalbard has released the results of the investigation into the death of this Bear and for the first time in history a large fine has been levied against those responsible for putting the lives of people and bears in danger.
This is a great result considering the circumstances. My Blog on the death of the bear (http://blog.jholko.com/2015/07/11/svalbard-governor-fines-tourists-for-death-of-polar-bear/). The full official report (http://www.nrk.no/norge/turfolge-ble-angrepet-av-isbjorn---far-bot-1.12451325).
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Thanks for the update, Josh.
This is at least one small step in the right direction.
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I think we should tag all tourists with a flag from their respective countries so the bears have a choice.
All kidding aside, I think there's two sides to this story. The locals, government etc. encourage and advertise interaction between their local wild animals and tourists who come to spend their money to help the local economy. Of course there's going to be some stupidity, mistakes, ignorance and just normal problems when dangerous animals and people are in close proximity. If you want to protect the animals, and people, set up rules that will keep them apart. Of course, the community will probably have to sacrifice some income as tourists travel elsewhere.
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The locals, government etc. encourage and advertise interaction between their local wild animals and tourists who come to spend their money to help the local economy.
This is not true in Svalbard. 1. You cant leave town without a weapon (its illegal to do so) and 2. approaching a polar bear is strictly forbidden under any circumstances. Svalbard has very tight rules governing human behaviour around Polar Bears (much tighter than elsewhere). Tourism is active of course, but its tightly controlled.
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I read Google's translation of the article. It wasn't clear who received the fine. Was it the local guide? Or was it the leader of the camping party from the Czech Republic who was fined? (no local guide). If it was a guide, who is licensed by Svalbard, then the fine could be appropriate. He should have known better and done a better job to prevent the situation from happening.
However, if it was a visitor, then expecting visitors not to make mistakes seems like hoping too much. This was not a case of people deliberately approaching too close to the bears that you stated was forbidden. The three-person party was legally camping and asleep in their tent. They had set up a perimeter alarm fence system which is a normal requirement when camping in bear territory. Apparently, the alert fence was elevated too high and the bear slipped under it without setting off the alarm. It seems like they took reasonable precautions. After all, I'm sure they didn't intend to be attacked in their sleep. They just mis-judged where to set the height of the fence.
The fine is what interests me. If it was for a visitor from Czech and not an official guide, what better reason to use a guide then being faced with a $10,000 fine. Maybe the fine was pushed by the polar bear tourism industry to get visitors to use expensive local guides and companies rather than go out on their own and spend less money locally.
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Alan, with respect you making assumptions and not dealing with facts. I was there when this occurred and I am fully armed with all the facts. The local guides all knew this bear was hunting in the area, in fact those campers in question were warned when they were setting up camp that they were in a dangerous area and that there was a bear hunting in the area. They ignored the warnings and set up anyway. They set up a trip wire improperly and did not post a guard. It is not reasonable to set up in an area a bear is know. To be hunting whilst ignoring warnings from local guides.
As to the fine - it was levied against the guide. I am unsure if it was a local guide or an import however. Of this I cannot be sure. The point of this is that had this party heeded the warnings they were given this would not have occurred.
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Well, I said in my post if there was a guide, then he was responsible. Since they only fined him, that's OK by me. The problem is your original comments made it appear that the visitors who are basically layman when it comes to polar bears were being accused by you of doing stupid and irresponsible things on their own. It's up to the guide to make sure responsible camping and trip wires were set up and that guards where in place. He failed to do his job. Did they also take away his license?
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Well, I said in my post if there was a guide, then he was responsible. Since they only fined him, that's OK by me. The problem is your original comments made it appear that the visitors who are basically layman when it comes to polar bears were being accused by you of doing stupid and irresponsible things on their own. It's up to the guide to make sure responsible camping and trip wires were set up and that guards where in place. He failed to do his job. Did they also take away his license?
I am unsure if they have taken away the guides license. As I said, this part of the whole incident is an unknown to me as I do not know wether the guide was a local (I highly doubt it though) or an import (seems much more likely).
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(http://wallpaper-download.net/wallpapers/quotes-wallpapers-albert-einstein-quotes-wallpaper-36242.jpg)
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Speaking of setting up fence alert system to warn of bears approaching reminds me of this old joke slightly modified for this thread:
In light of the rising frequency of human/polar bear confrontations, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is advising hikers, hunters, and fishermen to take extra precautions and be alert for bears while in the field. ...We advise that outdoorsmen wear small bells on their clothing so as not to startle bears that aren't expecting them, and to carry pepper spray with them in case of an encounter....
It is also a good idea to watch out for fresh signs of bear activity. Outdoorsmen should recognize the difference between black bear and polar bear droppings. Black bear droppings are smaller and contain lots of berries and fur. Polar bear droppings have little bells in it and smell like pepper.
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