I am filing this story under “safety”, just out of sarcasm.
According to Finland’s environment ministry, there are approximately a thousand brown bears in Finland. This population is so small that the bear is officially considered a near threatened species, even though it is Finland’s national animal.
Now I am reading a fresh news story about today’s border and coast guard operation, in which two boats and a helicopter were scrambled to the Baltic Sea in front of Hanko, Finland, after a bear had been spotted on an islet, eating swan’s eggs. The authorities apparently woke up the sleeping bear, and, after several hours of pursuit, succeeded in gunning it down.
Hanko, a sleepy county located some 130 km west of Helsinki, has a population of 10 000, one post office, one liquor store - you get the picture. Parking is free of charge; after all, with a population density of approximately one person per 12 000 m² of land, there won’t be enough cars to cause a problem. Some would think that there would be room for a bear as well, but at least today, they were outgunned by those who preferred to stage a mucho macho helicopter hunt.
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