If you want to see a polar bear, you generally have to go looking for it.

That’s what makes the shooting and killing of a polar bear in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, within the Arctic Circle, all the more infuriating.

The polar bear was shot dead after attacking a cruise ship guard, who suffered “non-life-threatening head injuries” and is now in a stable condition.

The BBC reports:

He was assigned to protect tourists who had landed on Svalbard’s northernmost island from the MS Bremen, which is operated by Hapag-Lloyd Cruises.

The German cruise company said a second guard shot the bear “in self-defence”.

Crazy idea – don’t let the guards or tourists get close enough to a polar bear that it might attack.

This image below, which has done the rounds on social media, has left many raging:

It also angered Ricky Gervais, although he was unusually restrained and failed to use his usual c-word descriptor for those who shoot and kill animals:

NBC has further details on the attack:

The German Hapag Lloyd Cruises company, which operates the MS Bremen, told The Associated Press that two polar bear guards from their ship went on the island and one of them “was attacked by a polar bear and injured on his head.”

The polar bear was then shot dead “in an act of self-defense” by the second guard, spokeswoman Negar Etminan said…

She said all cruise ships traveling [sic] in the northern region are obliged to have polar bear guards aboard.

If you’re thinking this might spell a little break from ogling eyes for the bears, think again. There are 18 cruise ships set to dock this week in Longyearbyen, Svalbard’s largest settlement.

Svalbard is a wilderness of glaciers and ice caps, with around 60% of it is covered with ice. The area’s 3 000 polar bears outnumber the human population, although that is probably set to change in the years to come.

[sources:bbc&nbc]