MOSCOW: In a surprising incident, a polar bear was spotted prowling for food in a Russian village, some 675 miles away from its Arctic Ocean habitat.
According to the details, the polar bear ventured into a remote village in Tomponsky District yesterday, causing panic among the locals.
Hunters kept the bear at bay for around eight hours after it suddenly appeared in the coal-mining village of Dzhebariki-Khaya.
The wildlife specialists flew in by helicopter from regional capital Yakutsk to lure the animal into a cage using seal fat as a bait. After a six-week effort, authorities eventually caught the beast, which appeared furious that its marathon adventure had come to an end.
In a video, the bear is seen angrily shaking its cramped cage.
The bear was so hungry that it ate 40 kilograms of fish in the first hour after being caught.
Russian Minister of Ecology in Yakutia region, Sahamin Afanasiev said, “The group worked professionally. They lured the bear into the cage which was specially made in advance.”
“After that we prepared a transportation box, loaded it into a Polar Airlines helicopter and in one and a half hours the bear was delivered to Yakutsk. The bear is to be temporarily housed in the city’s zoo before a decision is made on its fate,” the minister added.
One idea is to fly it back to the shore of the Laptev Sea, and re-release it into the wild. But if the animal is deemed unfit to return to the wild, it will go permanently to a zoo, Mail Online reported.
The bear is already famous for its epic travel adventure – but experts are unsure what made it embark on this odyssey.
