General Chat

The inquest was held yesterday into the death of a young man who was killed by a polar bear while on an expedition from school to a Norwegian island within the Arctic Circle.

It seems the bear got into the tent where he was sleeping early in the morning and dragged him out to eat him.

The bear was later shot.

This is tremendously sad for his parents of course but I would think it sensible to not sleep in the garden of some particular creature if you are what it eats.

The poor bear did not deserve to be shot. It was where it lived, going about its daily life and looking for it's breakfast. It found something that must have looked like convenience food to it and so took advantage of it's good luck.

It is quite difficult to believe that young people are taken to sleep in tents in such an environment.

The incident occurred because the anti-bear trip wires were held together with paper clips! Neither was there an all night guard who could have shot over its head to frighten it off. They were there to observe, not to hunt.

Sorry - but if the students hadn't been there, it would have starved to death anyway. It was old and infirm, not an adult in the prime of its life. You could equate the situation with Africans whose animals or even themselves who are attacked by an old, arthritic Big Cat who can't chase the 'natural' game.

We have to learn to co-exist with the natural world around us. What better way than to visit and learn to respect the more isolated parts of the planet. Who knows? If it hadn't been for this incident, some of those students might have devoted their lives to wild life welfare in the Field.

If there is always a danger from infirm carnivores it would seem like a strange place to sleep in a tent anyway.

Tents are temporary - a permanent structure with connecting roads has more impact on the environment. If any of ours wanted to have the experience of roughing it in the wilds ( and we could have afforded it) we'd have waved them off at the airport.
Why do people climb mountains? Because they are there!

If the safety provisions had worked correctly, the student would still be alive, and the bear might have lived for a bit longer.

I have been trying to find more detail about this case because i feel I need to know better what I am talking about.

The fact that the bear was hungry or infirm in some way has not yet come up in the court reports, which doesn't mean it won't be mentioned soon, so I wonder if you could tell me which report this is in please.

I think it might have been reported by some association that specializes in outward bound activities which I have not found.

It was either on the BBC TV news yesterday, or their website.