Hundreds of Internet users furious at the death of the polar bear in Gaspésie

The decision to slaughter the animal instead of putting it to sleep and then transporting it to its natural habitat sparked many reactions and questions. The Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks justified its decision on its social networks.

Putting a bear to sleep, not so easy

Could the officers have done otherwise than shoot the bear seen the day before in Sainte-Madeleine-de-la-Rivière-Madeleine? Several experts have recalled that putting such an animal to sleep cannot be improvised, transporting it is a headache, and letting it loose represents a great danger for the surrounding populations.

Both at the Zoo sauvage de Saint-Félicien and at the Aquarium du Québec, we agree on one thing: anesthetizing and handling a sleeping polar bear is a very difficult task.

First of all, planning is necessary, anesthesia protocols are put in place to ensure the safety of both personnel and animal.

You can’t put a polar bear to sleep quickly. If we want everything to work and the anesthesia to be correct for him, for the safety of the workers, we can’t do that on a whim.explains Joanie Boudreault, director of living collections at the Zoo sauvage de Saint-Félicien.

The constraints are also numerous. For example, the drugs used by the Zoo sauvage de Saint-Félicien on the three bears it houses only work for two hours.

It doesn’t take very long to intervene with a bear. We can give him another injection, but there is always a risk for the animal’s survival.explains Joanie Boudreault.

Specialized equipment is also needed to perform anesthesia, which is rarely done at the Aquarium du Québec, which is home to two bears, says curator Catherine Rousseau.

We have no choice but to have an anesthesia machine that will be efficient enough for this size of animal. If we need to intubate the animal, these are special tubes, and it is rare that we have them in handshe explains.

” It’s not easy to put a bear to sleep. »

A cage problem

Once the animal is asleep, you have to make sure you have the right cages to be able to transport it.

You can’t improvise a cage for a polar bear. Our male is 400 kg, and in addition to the weight of the cage, we need rolling stock to move themexplains Joanie Boudreault.

Transport is therefore also very complex, given the size, weight and strength of the beast. For Douglas Clark, a professor at the School of Environment at the University of Saskatchewan and a polar bear specialist, relocating such an animal is a test for him.

It’s a situation that creates a lot of stress.he says.

In addition, Catherine Rousseau, of the Aquarium of Quebec, does not believe that capturing the bear found in Gaspésie to put it in captivity would have been desirable.

If the animal is in perfect health and has known nature, it is better to leave it in its natural habitat, it could develop more problems if put in captivityshe says.

The transport of polar bears, an existing expertise

Transporting a polar bear a long distance, however, is not impossible. In Churchill, the self-proclaimed polar bear capital of northern Manitoba, residents live with the presence of the animal.

According to Chantal Ouimet, a former ecologist at Wapusk National Park, the province’s wildlife officers must, from time to time, tranquilize and helicopter in nets polar bears that venture too regularly into the village.

Generally, wildlife officers will try to scare the bear away, or in the fall release it on the ice, and tag it. If this bear comes back multiple times, at that time they will catch it and move it furthershe explains.

But according to her, the decision to slaughter the animal that ended up in Sainte-Madeleine-de-la-Rivière-Madeleine was the right one, given the danger it represented, the urgency of the situation and the logistical constraints related to travel.

You can’t anesthetize the bear for days, and without a cage to transport it, it’s hard to manageshe says.

According to Professor Clark, we must not forget that the polar bear is a super predator. Nor should the danger it represents be underestimated. Even a healthy individual, as seemed to be the case with the Sainte-Madeleine-de-la-Rivière-Madeleine bear, represents a significant risk of predation, he underlines.

For the authorities, it’s a difficult situation, we don’t know what’s going on, and polar bears are dangerous, especially for people who don’t know their behavior.he explains. In this situation, nothing was controlled by the authorities, and that is dangerous for people.

” Nobody wants to kill a bear if it’s not necessary. It’s serious and it’s sad. But sometimes it is necessary. »

The situation of the polar bear is judged worrying, given its declining population. However, the species is not considered endangered.