Sharjah24 – AFP: A polar bear was spotted Saturday in the Quebec region of Canada, prompting wildlife officials to warn residents of a small town stunned by this very rare appearance.
The bear -- whose species has become a symbol of the dangers of global warming -- was seen in the morning hours in Madeleine-Centre in the Gaspesia region, a peninsula along the south bank of the Saint Lawrence River, witnesses said.
As of Saturday afternoon, officials were still trying to find the animal.
"The dog was barking and I heard my partner yell, 'There's a bear, there's a bear!'" said Sophie Bonneville, who lives in the town of 2,000 people located 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of Montreal.
Quebec provincial police put out a tweet warning people about the bear sighting and urging them to stay indoors.
Bonneville said nobody in town had ever seen a polar bear so far south, not even wildlife officials.
Police patrolled the region, where hiking is popular.
In Canada, polar bears -- the planet's largest land carnivores -- are listed as a "vulnerable" species.
A 2020 study published in Nature Climate Change said climate change could lead to their extinction as global warming causes the gradual melting of the Arctic ice pack.
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