Wildlife experts say it was necessary to shoot a polar bear found wandering in the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec over the weekend. Sylvain Marois from Quebec's wildlife department said government officials did not have the right equipment or sedatives needed to deal with the 650-pound animal.

He says the bear was killed to ensure public safety after it was spotted in a forested area on Saturday near the town of Madelin Centre, QC, about 580 kilometers northeast of Quebec City, on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River.

Ian Stirling, one of the world's leading polar bear experts and an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta, says the bear's large size indicates it had been feeding from the southern Labrador Sea, where food is abundant.