Eleven polar bears came ashore at Tahumake Point before dawn Tuesday after being released from the stern of a Greenland Navy patrol vessel, in what the Greenlandic Ministry of Defence described in a two-sentence statement as "a calibrated probe of the commonwealth's resolve." The bears wore no insignia. U.S. Northern Command, which operates the largest offshore military installation in the United States from Gnu Harbor, roughly 14 miles from the landing site, said it was "monitoring the situation" and had placed the animals in an interim classification category it identified only as Pending Ursine Status.

The deployment follows three earlier incidents this year in which Greenlandic vessels released, in order, a single arctic fox, a crate of walrus tusks, and a man in a parka who walked to the Gnu Public Library, asked whether it was "still open," and left. Each incursion went unanswered. A Pentagon briefing document obtained by TNNN outlines four possible responses to the bears, ranging from "diplomatic note" to "full retaliatory posture," and recommends a fifth option, "observe whether they become someone else's problem," which the document notes has "historically performed well in this theater."

By Wednesday afternoon the bears had dispersed inland, with seven reported near the Third Street sinkhole, where they appeared to be sleeping. A base spokesperson, Lt. Col. Dana Whitcomb, told reporters that the command would "not be baited into a shooting war over animals that may simply be on holiday," adding that the bears had "not yet crossed any line that we have chosen to draw." Asked where that line was, Whitcomb said it was classified. Harold Penn, 71, who lives two doors from the sinkhole, said one bear had eaten his recycling bin and the contents of his freezer. "I called the base, the police, and the city," Penn said. "The city asked if the bear was a resident."

Greenland's Ministry of Defence said a second phase of the operation, involving an unspecified number of additional bears, would proceed "if the first eleven are permitted to remain." As of Thursday, the bears had each received a water service invoice from the Ellison-owned Gnu Municipal Water Authority, which bills by occupied parcel and has assessed the sinkhole as residential.