Whether it is actually a polar bear has yet to be officially confirmed by researchers. They compare tracks of the beast and try to determine where the beast is at the moment. “I’ve seen a photo where the bear is clearly visible, and it’s white. In terms of color, it is the right color,” said Joël Côté, the mayor of the village, against CBC news† “But I’m not a specialist.” In addition to black and brown bears, Canada also has white bears.
Everyone wonders how the polar bear could have ended up so south in the village of Madeleine-Centre, where there is still a lot of snow at the moment. “Swimming, on an ice floe?” Even the Canadians north of the Broad River can’t recall ever seeing a live specimen roaming around their area.
Good swimmers
Dominique Berteaux, a biologist at the University of Québec, says he is almost certain that it is a polar bear. According to him, it could be a stray polar bear that was on its way from the cold east of Canada (Labrador) to the north. He is not surprised that the beast would have swum across such a wide river. “They are fantastic swimmers,” he said. “They can go 100 to 200 kilometers.”
The white predator, which is increasingly hunting south for food due to global warming, was caught in the garden of a house in the village of 2000 in the morning. The resident, who was alarmed by her barking dog, managed to photograph the huge beast. “No one has ever seen anything like it here before,” an eyewitness told the French news agency AFP. “People thought it was a joke.”
The police have urged anyone who sees the animal not to go there themselves but to call 911 immediately.
