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Bear in Italy (symbolic image)
Photo: Bruno D Amicis / Nature Picture Library / IMAGO
A bear classified as dangerous has been shot down in the Italian Alps. Forestry officials shot the two-and-a-half-year-old predator on Tuesday in Trento province, local authorities said. According to them, he showed himself to be “excessively trusting” and often stayed near cities.
On January 28th he is said to have followed hikers at a distance of around 500 meters, whereupon the Institute for Nature Conservation and Environmental Research (ISPRA) immediately called for him to be shot down.
Regional President Maurizio Fugatti gave approval for this. He had already spoken out in favor of limiting the bear population last year after a bear killed a jogger on a hiking trail in the same region in April 2023. After the bear was shot, the animal protection organization OIPA condemned the Trent authorities' "blind and anti-animal policy."
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The Italian Environment Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin also doubted that killing the animal was the best option. He said in a statement that this cannot be the only alternative. He called for efforts “to ensure peaceful coexistence in the area.”
With the “Life Ursus” program between 1996 and 2004, the northern Italian province pursued the goal of making bears feel at home again in northern Italy. 50 bears were supposed to settle there, but now there are many more. In total, 120 to 200 bears live in Italy, primarily in Trento and Abruzzo in the center of the country.
bbr/AFP/AP