An "air bear" helicopter flight has returned a polar bear to the Russian Arctic after it drifted more than 644km south on an ice floe.
Fishermen ran into the 2-year-old male bear last week near Tilichiki, an isolated village in the Kamchatka region on Russia's Pacific coast.
Since polar bears are not usually found in Kamchatka, it is believed the marooned male bear had floated in on a piece of ice from the neighbouring Chukotka region. It was nicknamed "Umka" after a playful polar bear from a Soviet cartoon.
As sea ice melts further and faster due to global warming, polar bears are being seen more frequently outside their normal habitat. A study published yesterday said the release of methane and carbon dioxide from thawing permafrost will accelerate climate change.
