Polar bear kills young British adventurer in Norway

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

Horatio Chapple, 17, died and four others were injured on expedition at Von Postbreen glacier on Spitsbergen island

Josh Layton, Sam Jones and Steven Morris | Friday 5 August 2011 15.55 BST

A British teenager has been mauled to death and four others injured by a polar bear that came into the youths' tent as they camped on a remote Norwegian island in the Arctic circle.

Horatio Chapple, who was 17, died on Friday morning after the bear attacked on the Von Postbreen glacier on the island of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago.

The bear was shot dead by one of the leaders of the party of 13, who were with a group of 80 taking part in a five-week Arctic expedition run by the BSES Expeditions, a youth development charity based at the Royal Geographical Society in London.

The injured were helicoptered to a hospital 25 miles away in Spitsbergen's capital, Longyearbyen, after the group raised the alarm by satellite phone at 7.30am.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/05/polar-bear-mauls-british-death

[onehandle]

1. Right-wing gun psychos. Polar bears.

Never thought of Norway as a dangerous place until recently.

[cliffordu]

3. I hope the bears don't get guns.

[Posteritatis]

10. Because two incidents mean a whole country's a deathtrap. (nt)

[Ter]

20. How do you suggest stopping a raging polar bear?

Perhaps it charged at the others. Humans are not equipped to fight off polar bears, they need some sort of weapon to stop them.

[virgogal]

2. Prayers for the injured and RIP to Horatio.

[Hawkowl]

14. Fuck Horatio. RIP Mr. Polar Bear

There are precious few polar bears left. There undoubtedly many times more Horatio's walking about.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. You are a shameful member of humanity

Have you no decency?

[Hawkowl]

19. Humanity uber alles?

I have no sympathy for rich fools that kill themselves through negligence. Then said fool takes it out by destroying an endangered species. Decency is in the eye of the beholder and thank heavens not all people have your myopic, human centric, destructive point of view.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. You don't have sympathy for any humans, I suspect

The boy was taking part in a climate change survey, and intended to become a doctor. He was honourable, but you just say 'fuck him'. Or perhaps it's that his parents are rich that makes you hate him so much. Either way, you have an ugly mind.

[ozone_man]

4. Maybe we can leave some space for polar bears in this world?

They are severely endangered as it is, so we shouldn't be encroaching on the last remaining places they have to live, with sea ice melting and all.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

5. Given what you just mentioned...

... I take that them bears is hungry. Not meaning to be snide or disrespectful of the bereaved and injured. According to documentaries available from PBS to satellite to streaming, the bears are having to swim further and further to find food as the ice continues to break up. The logic of it is what hit me while reading the OP.

[swilton]

8. Totally agree -

shouldn't have shot the bear - or should have thought in advance how to neutralize such a threat without killing it. Polar bears have enough challenges without intrusions into their last remaining habitats.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. The person who shot the bear is one of the injured

Reid, from Plymouth, suffered head and neck injuries and is reported to be in a serious but stable condition after being airlifted to a hospital in Tromsø on the Norwegian mainland.

His family said they had been told by British embassy officials that Reid had shot the bear as it was attacking the expedition group. "We have been told that everyone is saying it was Michael who shot the bear and he was a hero," Peter Reid, Michael's father, told reporters. "It was very moving."
...
According to Terry Flinders, the father of Patrick, a tripwire – used to scare off bears by triggering a flare – had failed to operate.

"This time it didn't happen apparently, and one of the other chaps came out with a rifle and tried to kill the polar bear and didn't do it," he said. "And then the leader tried to kill the polar bear but just before he killed him, apparently, the bear mauled him."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/06/polar-bear-attack-michael-reid

So there was a system that was meant to 'neutralize the threat' (ie drive off the bear) without killing it, and without it injuring or killing people. But it failed, and they're going to investigate why. But when a bear has just seriously injured several people, you can hardly expect people to be saying "wait, we've got to think of an alternative method of driving off this bear".

[ozone_man]

12. Good point, but that doesn't excuse their presence in dwindling bear habitat.

With polar ice melting there is no habitats left for them. Islands are one of them.

If there is any good to come from this, perhaps a rethinking of polar expeditions. Very sorry for the kid who died.

[Lars77]

16. Their tripwire flares didnt work for some reason.

It's illegal to even seek out polar bears in Norway. This is a fairly large island where there's a few roaming around. It's perfectly normal to camp there and encounters are not that common.

I would say that when it kills four people and mauls anotherone, it obviously needs to be killed.

Normally bears shy away from people, but once it understands that humans actually taste good, it might start attacking people again.

[Lasher]

17. Polar bears are most likely to view humans as prey because their environment is so nutrient poor.

Most bears do not hunt and feed on humans under normal circumstances.

[wordpix]

22. I agree and with fish depletion in the oceans & seals getting killed

(by both man and lack of fish), the polar bears are hard pressed.

[yardwork]

6. Those young people never should have been on that island.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Being on the island isn't a problem, but you have to wonder if camping is appropriate

It's an inhabited island, and has been for a few hundred years. But in the wilderness parts, something substantial between you and the world's largest land predator seems like a good idea; the tripwires they had to set off flares failed. I suppose polar explorers camped all the time, but I also wonder if they didn't take turns as a lookout.

[okasha]

18. Tragic for both the bear and the campers.

You're right. There should have been a sentinel.

[formercia]

9. "Say Wot? ""Run?"

Good old Public School Esprit.

[goforit]

13. That socialistc Norway! Damn'it !!! Always gets a bad rap!

[cigsandcoffee]

21. He was helping to research climate change.

Some people on this thread seem to think he was there to shoot a polar bear?

He sounds like a good kid. This is a real tragedy.