The alert was lifted Sunday morning for citizens of Haute-Gaspésie who were asked to stay indoors due to the presence of a stray polar bear in the region.
In a tweet around 9:00 a.m., the Eastern Division of the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) indicated that the animal was neutralized in the Madeleine-Centre sector by wildlife protection officers (MFFP).
The polar bear was shot, according to various sources.
The day before, Wildlife Protection could not explain how a polar bear could end up in Haute-Gaspésie, forcing the inhabitants of the Madeleine-Centre sector, in Sainte-Madeleine-de-la-Rivière-Madeleine, to remain inside while awaiting capture.
Wildlife Protection Southeast District Commander Sylvain Marois confirmed to The Canadian Press on Saturday that his team knew where the polar bear was, but that the operation was tricky due to the unpredictability of the polar bear. animal, especially since it was not in its natural habitat. He recalled that we must be wary of the aggressiveness of the ursid, which is first and foremost a predator.
On site, a wildlife officer was able to observe traces of the animal in the area where a citizen saw it on Saturday morning. The nature of the intervention would depend on several factors and Commander Marois had not ruled out the possibility that the bear would be shot.
“We are waiting to have a visual on the animal, without provoking the visual, he described. We will approach slowly. We want to make sure that, when we see it, we are able to intervene. Whether it’s tranquilizer or we have to put him down. »
Sylvain Marois has advanced the hypothesis that the animal could have taken advantage of drifting ice to cross the St. Lawrence River. For all he knows, it would be a first for his department to observe a polar bear on the south bank of the river.
Earlier this month, a polar bear had been seen in Minganie, on the Lower North Shore, more than 200 km northeast of Madeleine-Centre.