- "Problem Bear" shot down in Lake Garda
In the height of the holiday season, above the Gardasee in Italy, a bear has been shot that had become a threat to tourists. The bear, designated KJ1, was located and killed by hunters with the help of a transmitter around its neck, according to the government of the Trentino province. The brown bear had attacked and severely injured a 43-year-old French jogger three weeks ago.
The Trentino region, as well as the neighboring South Tyrol, is currently hosting many Austrian citizens for their summer holidays. Many are hiking or cycling in the forest, where there are now more than a hundred brown bears at home. There have also been recent attacks in other European mountain regions. In the Romanian Carpathians, a tourist even died. However, animal and environmental protectionists were upset about the shooting, and criticism also came from the government in Rome.
The shot bear was a more than 20-year-old bear mother with three or four cubs. She was shot near the municipality of Tenno on the orders of the provincial government. Authorities described it as a "dangerous specimen" that had previously been noticed in at least seven cases due to problematic behavior, such as being near inhabited areas or approaching people elsewhere.
The frequent encounters may also be due to the fact that the past few weeks have been the mating season, and male bears have been looking for partners. Especially mother bears, who are afraid for their offspring, can react aggressively. Moreover, bears are increasingly approaching farms and settlements in search of food: in Trentino, tons of garbage and compost have been ransacked, cherry trees have been stripped bare, and calves and sheep have been killed.
Although the bear attacked a tourist, animal protectionists tried to prevent the killing of KJ1 through legal means. In Europe, brown bears are protected by various agreements and an EU directive. Only "problem bears" may be captured and relocated - and, if necessary, shot. This happens rarely. However, the Trentino parliament recently allowed the killing of up to eight bears per year.
Several animal protection organizations expressed outrage, and so did the government in Rome. Italian Environment Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said, "The killing of individual bears is not a solution." Looking back at the reintroduction of bears in Trentino around the turn of the millennium, he said, "We are experiencing today the consequences of a mistake from the past, which was made thoughtlessly with regard to the tourist use of the bear image."
Another "problem bear" is to be moved from Italy to the Black Forest
Usually, bears avoid people. However, there have been frequent encounters in Trentino in recent years. Last year, a 26-year-old jogger was even killed by a bear. This bear, known as Gaia, was then captured alive and will be relocated to Germany in the coming weeks. A enclosure is currently being built for Gaia at the "Alternative Wolf and Bear Park" in Bad Rippoldsau-Schapbach in the Black Forest.
In the Black Forest Park, there also lives the brown bear Jurka, her mother. Gaias brother Bruno was the first bear to set foot on Bavarian soil in 170 years, in the summer of 2006. The "problem bear" was shot in the Bavarian Rotwand region. Generally, experts advise staying calm and slowly retreating in case of an encounter with brown bears. They also recommend bear spray and odor-proof containers to prevent the animals from being attracted in the first place.
The concern for animal protectionists extends beyond Trentino, as a tourist was tragically killed by a bear in another European mountain region, specifically the Romanian Carpathians. The pristine nature of the Black Forest in Germany is now set to accommodate another "problem bear" from Italy, as Gaia will be relocated there, joining her mother and brother.
