Swimmer bear kills sheep in Åland Islands
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The notorious bear that has troubled sheep farmers in the Turku Archipelago for the past couple of weeks seems to have swum to the Åland Islands in search of even more food before settling down for its winter sleep.
On the Söderholmen island in the Brändö district, the carcasses of three mauled sheep were found on Saturday.
Another sheep remains missing.
Åland nature conservation officials visited the site over the weekend. A quick examination of the remains of the sheep as well as the nearby imprints confirmed a large predator, a bear, as the prowler. The udders of the sheep had been eaten, their chest cavities had been torn, plus there were lacerations to their skin.
The owners of the sheep from Kumlinge, together with several other Brändö residents, came to the island on Sunday. Equipped with guns, the men gathered the remaining 50 sheep and took them to safety.
Last week a bear killed five sheep on the island of Själö in the Houtskari district of the Turku Archipelago.
Four more sheep had drowned while trying to escape from the island by swimming.
Director Heikki Uotila of Finland Proper Game Management District believes the culprit in both Åland and Turku archipelago sheep killings is the same bear. Already earlier in the summer a bear was seen in the Brändö and Åva districts of Åland.
"As the water temperature is still 15 degrees, a bear can easily swim across a body of water ten kilometres wide, provided that the weather is fine and the waves are not too high", Uotila explains.
The assumption that there is only one bear gets further backing from the fact that there have not been any new attacks in the Houtskari islands.
"It is also possible that the bear, which primarily resides in Brändö, simply swam south-east to Houtskari for a journey of exploration", Uotila contemplates.
A bear is a protected species in Finland and must not be shot, unless it causes considerable damage and proves a threat to humans.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 4.10.2006 - TODAY |
 Swimmer bear kills sheep in Åland Islands
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