A man was charged for killing a polar bear in an Alaskan village invaded by the animals as Arctic sea ice has melted.

Chris Gordon, 35, improperly stored whale meat, attracting the bear, and then shot the majestic mammal outside his home in the coastal village of Kaktovic in December 2018, federal prosecutors said last week.

Gordon didn’t tag or report the polar bear as would have been required if the killing had been in self-defense, which is allowed under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Ryan Tansey, a Fairbanks-based federal prosecutor, told KTOO.

Coastal Alaska Natives may also harvest polar bears for crafts or food but not in a wasteful way.

But Gordon didn’t salvage any part of the bear — instead, he let the animal’s carcass rot in his front yard from December until May, when a snow-removal vehicle hit the remains, investigators said.

He eventually took it to the local dump to be burned, according to the charges.

The North Slope village has seen a boom of polar bears, as the animals are spending more time on land because of melting sea ice.

Some residents have been expressing concerns about their ability to protect themselves against the encroaching bears, who are considered threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

“The bear’s underneath my house in the morning when I go to work,” Mike Gallagher, a city council member, said at a public meeting in June. “Would it be your kid? Would it be my kid? It could be anybody down the street. These bears are getting used to people. They’re domesticated.”

If Gordon is convicted, he faces up to a $100,000 fine and a year in prison. He has an initial court appearance in Fairbanks scheduled for next month.