Do polar bears and penguins live in Sweden?
Some myths are a lot more difficult to upend than others – and this particular one seems to be immortal and unaffected by both facts and hard evidence.
Sure, there are a few polar bears in zoos around Sweden, but are there polar bears or penguins roaming about in the average icy-cold Swedish city during the winter? It’s not far from the Arctic Ocean, after all…
Radio Sweden’s Markus Landén put the question to Magnus Augner, evolutionary biologist and head of the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat.
To listen, click here
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Polar bears surprise residents of northern Canadian community, CBC News
Finland: Rains force bears out of hibernation in Finland, Yle News
Russia: Russia hosts meeting on polar bears, Eye on the Arctic
Sweden: Bear hunt quota worries reindeer herders in Sweden’s Arctic, Radio Sweden
United States: Polar bears diverged 4 to 5 million years ago, but interbred with brown bears, Alaska Dispatch
