Bear kills jogger in Italy: Attack shocks the population – now “Vendetta” threatens.

“They took the chance that there would be a death – now they have it.” So said the 26-year-old jogger’s desperate mother over Easter weekend after she was attacked and killed by a bear last week during a training session in the woods above his home in Caldes, Trentino.

The jogger’s family has engaged a lawyer and is filing a lawsuit against the authorities. “We want justice,” said the mother. It can’t be that her son had to lose his life like this, not far from where he lives – the authorities are also responsible for protecting people, not just protecting bears.

Many other local residents are also shocked by the young man’s death – and despite the beautiful weather, hardly any tourists dared to go into the woods around Caldes at Easter. It is the first time in living memory that a human has been attacked and killed by a brown bear in northern Italy. The jogger had apparently tried to defend himself with a wooden stick, but didn’t stand a chance against the bear, Europe’s largest land predator.

“Trouble Bears” penetrate into settlement areas

Brown bears usually live shyly in the forest and avoid humans, who are not prey for them either. An exception is the so-called “problem bears”, which have become accustomed to the presence of humans, encroaching on human settlements and breaking into chicken coops and stables.

But a “normal” bear can also be dangerous – if it is surprised by a human in its habitat and feels threatened. Female bears protecting their cubs behave particularly aggressively.

Even though bear incidents are relatively rare and usually end relatively mildly, after the jogger’s death, the entire bear conservation project in Adamello-Brenta National Park is now in political sham. “Life Ursus” was launched in the late 1990s and is co-financed by the EU: after only three males remained from the natural native bear population in Trentino, ten cubs were imported from Slovenia and released into the wild.

The success of the project surprised even the experts: the bears multiplied quickly and today the population is estimated at more than 100 adults and 20 baby bears. Fifteen bears would roam Caldes alone.

A start command has already been issued

The local authorities now think this is too much of a good thing. The president of the autonomous province of Trentino, Maurizio Fugatti of the right-wing national league, has already issued the shooting order for the alleged “perpetrator”, who of course has yet to be identified using DNA analyses. Three more “problem bears” are affected by Fugatti’s launch order.

Fugatti is known as a hardliner when it comes to brown bears, but he has never been able to defend himself against the national authorities and Ispra’s environmental service. Now he sees the hour of vendetta, revenge, approaching: in addition to the four problem bears, he also wants to exterminate half of the bear population, that is, at least fifty other animals. Ultimately, however, his long-term goal is a Trentino without bears: After the jogger’s death, the Life Ursus project as a whole could not sustain, Fugatti explains.

It probably won’t come to that, if only because brown bears are under strict species protection in the EU. Animal and nature conservation organizations are already mobilizing against the planned extermination campaigns: the national animal protection organization Enpa speaks of an imminent “pogrom” against the bears, which has nothing to do with prevention.

The largest Italian environmental organization, Legambiente, reacted a little more soberly: after the deadly bear attack in Caldes, it was “clear that there was a problem in the province of coexistence between humans and wild animals”. A mass shooting could not be the solution; there needs to be more constructive ways to balance the interests of locals and tourists with the protection of the bear.

In fact, Lega man Fugatti is accused of failing to prevent. Former Environment Minister Sergio Costa emphasizes that he has repeatedly asked local authorities to equip the bears with transmitters so they know where they are. The result: “Nothing happened: Fugatti only knows the solution of the launch.”

In fact, other national parks with bear populations, such as Abruzzo, are much further afield. In Abruzzo, trails are closed to mountain bikers due to the presence of bears; Dogs must be leashed, warning signs draw attention to the animals and provide tips on what to do if you encounter a bear. With these few measures alone, the risk of a bear attack can be greatly reduced. “What we need is not more guns, but more competent and responsible local authorities,” emphasizes Costa. (bzbasel.ch)