Search has been called off for an alleged polar bear spotted by two women on Skagi peninsula on Monday. Despite extensive search, police only found sheep tracks in the spot where the alleged polar bear was standing, but no paw prints from a bear.

An unclear picture taken by one of the two women shows a white clump which seemed too large to be a lone sheep at first sight. “The photograph fooled us a bit. We took a picture of a man standing in the exact same spot and compared the photos which shows that the animal is not unusually large,” chief constable in Saudárkrókur Stefán Vagn Stefánsson told Morgunbladid.

“We don’t know for sure what is in the picture but there are no other tracks there than sheep tracks,” Stefánsson added, explaining that the ground was moist and footprints from the two women were found, so a polar bear should have left paw prints.

Stefánsson said there was also snow in the area, but no suspicious tracks were found there either. The alleged polar bear was searched from air and on land but after the aforementioned information had been submitted, the search was called off.

Hrefna Björg Gudmundsdóttir who reported the third polar bear to the police is still certain of what she saw. “The animal I saw was not a sheep,” she told Fréttabladid, adding that her sister-in-law Hallfrídur Sverrisdóttir, who was with her at the time, is also absolutely certain about having spotted a polar bear.

Gudmundsdóttir said she is disappointed about the plausibility of her statement being questioned yet expressing understanding in the difficulty of finding the bear. “It is of course a large area and not far away from snow. I just hope they’ll find it as soon as possible.”

Although the search has been called off, Stefánsson said people should continue to be on the lookout for polar bears. “Since two have arrived it is not impossible that there are more.”

Click here to read more about Gudmundsdóttir’s eyewitness account.