A polar bear which was found roaming around a village in eastern Russia, 400 miles away from home, has been airlifted back home.
The exhausted-looking animal apparently travelled on an ice floe from the remote, sparsely populated Chukotka to a village on Kamchatka, about 434 miles south when it was found last week.
The bear was thought to have lost its sense of direction while drifting on the ice.
On Monday, Russian emergency authorities mounted an operation to repatriate the bear.
The bear was shot with a tranquiliser and put in a container and onto a helicopter which flew to the snow-covered Chukotka.
The bear was then released into the wild.
Prior to the bear being airlifted home, locals had been making the bear feel welcome by feeding it fish, media reported.
Videos posted online showed the animal moving past residents, showing no aggression.
Environmentalists say that wild animals such as polar bear are suffering from the shrinking hunting environment and the receding ice as the Arctic is getting warmer.
“Due to climate change, the Arctic is getting warmer, hunting environment gets smaller and less convenient,” said Vladimir Chuprov of Greenpeace. “The ice is receding, and polar bears look for new ways to survive. And the easiest way is coming to people.”