The mayor of Sainte-Madeleine-de-la-Rivière-Madeleine said he was informed of the situation on Saturday morning after a friend sent him photos of the bear and one of its tracks.
“It was a funny day. I was wondering how a polar bear could get there, it’s a little early for an April Fool’s joke,” Joël Côté told Radio Canada.
The animal was last seen near the site of the former airport in the area, the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) said.
Sophie Bonneville told Radio Canada that she spotted the bear near her home after Boris’s dog alerted her. He soon contacted Quebec wildlife officials.
A photo of the bear’s footprint next to a person’s foot, on a scale. (Submitted by Jean Bergeron)
“My partner was shoveling and Boris was fleeing because, well, he can’t stand anything on our land, not even a crow,” Boneville said. “He looked at the dog, he was not afraid.
“After looking at my partner, he turned to go back to the forest.”
They have not yet confirmed if it is actually a polar bear and are still looking for clues to determine where it has gone.
“There is a photo where you can see the bear clearly and it is white. In terms of color, it is the right color,” Côté added. “I’m not an expert.”
SQ officers go door-to-door to advise locals to stay inside.
Police ask anyone who sees the animal not to approach it and call 911 immediately.
A rare but not impossible visit, says the biologist
Dominique Berteaux, biologist and professor at the Université du Québec à Rimouski, bets on being a polar bear. Polar bears found in the spring on the east coast of Labrador move north when the ice breaks, Berteaux said, but noted that sometimes bears can get lost. They are also fantastic swimmers, he said. “The Inuit consider it a marine mammal,” Berteaux said. “According to the scientific literature, there is nothing extraordinary about a bear crossing 100 or 200 kilometers while swimming.” Earlier this month, polar bears were spotted more than 200 miles north, across Saint Lawrence Bay, in the area. Baie-Johan-Beetz. A polar bear was also recently spotted near the Innu of community Unaman Sipu in the Lower North Coast, which is already south of the normal habitat of the animal.
