The polar bear seen in Haute-Gaspésie on Saturday, a highly unusual place for this kind of animal, was finally killed.
Posted at 10:07 a.m.
The Sûreté du Québec confirmed on Sunday morning that it had officially lifted its alert. The day before, the police force had asked residents of the Madeleine-Centre sector, in Sainte-Madeleine-de-la-Rivière-Madeleine, in Gaspésie, to stay at home, after learning that a polar bear had been seen in the region.
Sophie Bonneville, owner of the Victory Farm Café Boutique Pub in Grande-Vallée, told The Press how she and her spouse first saw the animal.
“We have four urban hens that we moved from Sorel. Maybe he felt them, because the tracks were coming towards the henhouse, ”she exclaims, on the phone.
According to him, the agents of the Wildlife Protection would have used a helicopter and drones to locate the bear on the run. Fish bait was also reportedly placed on the edge of a nearby airstrip, without success.
The animal was reportedly shot Sunday morning after being seen near a river, for lack of equipment to put it to sleep and then handle it properly, says Sophie Bonneville. ” [La Protection de la Faune]they didn’t even have a cage to transport him to the territory,” she said.
The commander of the south-eastern district for the Protection of Wildlife, Sylvain Marois, had confirmed to The Canadian Press the day before that his team knew where the animal was, but that the operation was delicate because of its unpredictable nature, even more so when it is not in its natural habitat. We were also wary of the aggressiveness of the bear, which is primarily a predator.
The presence of these ursids at such a latitude is highly unusual, although some extremely rare sightings do occasionally occur. Earlier this month, a polar bear had been seen in Minganie, on the Lower North Shore, more than 200 km northeast of Madeleine-Centre.
According to the website of the Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs, three subpopulations of polar bears reside in Quebec: those of Fox Basin (approximately 2,300 individuals), southern Hudson Bay (approximately 800 individuals) and Davis Strait (about 2250 individuals).
– With The Canadian Press