Polar Bear killed for acting like a "wild animal"

A polar bear has been shot dead after it attacked a cruise ship guard on Norway's Svalbard archipelago, within the Arctic Circle.

The guard suffered non-life-threatening head injuries and is said to be in a stable condition.

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".

The injured man was airlifted to hospital in the town of Longyearbyen, on Spitsbergen island.

Svalbard is a wilderness of glaciers and ice caps that lies between Norway and the North Pole.

An estimated 60% of it is covered with ice, and its 3,000 polar bears are said to outnumber the human population.

All ships in the area are obliged to employ bear guards to protect passengers on sightseeing tours.

"There are very strict rules here as the islands are visited by many polar bears in the summer, so we all need to be vigilant when we are ashore," one guide wrote in a post on Hapag-Lloyd's website.

Critics online, including British comedian Ricky Gervais, blamed the attack on human intrusion into polar bear territories

He said "Lets get too close to the polar bear and its environment then kill it if it gets too close.Morons"

And extinction symbol tweeted:"Polar bear killed for acting like a wild animal."

By Adi,GreenPlanet