This time the polar bear will be saved if possible. Polar bear sightings are rare in Iceland, but over a period of two weeks Iceland has had two. According to local newspapers “it has been planned to sedate it and move it to Greenland or Denmark”. The Danish zoo worker, Carsten Gröndhal, has been sent to Iceland and is preparing the save with local help. Carsten is the head vet at the Copenhagen Zoo.

According to sources the idea is to “shoot” the bear within the next 24 hours and move him to his natural location or the Copenhagen Zoo. Habitats of the farm Hraun, near were the bear was spotted have been asked to stay in and people have been urged not to come close.

According to local newspapers the bear is living a live of luxury eating eggs and birds at a local bird area and looks relaxed.

The Icelandic billionaire Björgulfur Thor Björgulfsson has offered through his company, Novator, to pay for the saving the bear and transport to a save environment.

For pictures of the Polar Bear go to MBL.is and a video of the bear can be seen here.

A polar bear which was found wandering in north Iceland was shot yesterday by the authorities. The bear, an adult male weighing around 250kg, is presumed to have swum from Greenland or from a distant chunk of Arctic ice.

The decision to shoot the polar bear was agreed to by the Environment Minister Thorunn Sveinbjarnardottir as the correct tranquiliser to sedate the animal was not available in Iceland and could only be flown in the following morning, reports Icelandic news channel Visir.is.

It had been proposed to try to sedate the animal and move it back to Greenland, but the police decided it was safest to kill the bear immediately.

“There was fog up in the hills and we took the decision to kill the bear before it could dissappear into the fog”, said Petur Bjornsson from the police at Saudarkrokur, near Skagafjordur where the bear was found.

The distance between Iceland and Greenland is about 300 km (200 miles). Although there are no confirmed records of a polar bear swimming between the two countries, the animal has considerable stamina and could have made the crossing if there had been icebergs on the way to rest on.

Polar bears were recently listed as a threated species by the US because its Arctic sea ice habitat is melting due to climate change. US government scientists have predicted that two-thirds of the polar bear population of 25,000 could disappear by 2050.

Footage of the polar bear walking around before being shot can be seen at mbl.is.