A statue of a polar bear urinating into a Dutch canal will no longer pass water at night after noise complaints from nearby sleep-deprived residents.

The giant “p—-d off” bear, erected to highlight the effects of climate change, had urinated every three minutes, 24 hours a day, before its neighbours complained the flow made too much noise.

But now the artwork, which was installed in the centre of the city of Amersfoort in July, will be switched off overnight before resuming its business at 7am.

“The idea was to have the polar bear pee, uncontrolled by us. But then people said it stopped them from sleeping so we thought we better turn him off at night,” said Paul Baltus, the director of the city’s Flehite museum.

Polar bear ‘is being a b—–d’

Higher temperatures caused by climate change have melted the ice caps and shrunk the habitats of polar bears, becoming a symbol of global warming.

The bear statue is the creation of Florentijn Hofman, a Dutch artist, who said it symbolised “the current state of nature”.

“It’s about the melting ice caps, the shrinking habitat of polar bears,” he said. 

“This polar bear has chosen to show he is p—-d off by peeing loudly into a canal. He is being a b—–d, just like us in the way we treat nature.”

The artwork is due to remain in place until November and is part of the Flehite’s Art and Zoo exhibition, Dutch media reported.

Mr Hofman became famous for floating an immense inflatable rubber duck in the harbours of Amsterdam, Sydney, Hong Kong and Osaka.

In 2014, he arranged for a gigantic 70ft-long wooden hippo to be towed up the River Thames in London. The sculpture was moored in Nine Elms for a month-long festival.

“I wanted to use the hippo to get people out of their homes, away from the internet and the TV, and to explore London with a new perspective,” said Mr Hofman at the time.