Rome - Authorities in northern Italy issued a capture order on
Monday for a wild bear that attacked a man on the weekend, amid
protests from environmentalists and concerns about human and wildlife
conflict in the region.
The president of the Trento province, Ugo Rossi, adopted a decree for
the "monitoring, identification and removal" of the animal, meaning
that it should be sedated, subjected to DNA testing, and moved to a
safe area.
Trento is an Alpine town just south of the German-speaking Italian
province of South Tyrol. Its park rangers were authorized to kill the
bear only if their lives were put in "serious and grave danger"
during operations.
The order was issued after Angelo Metlicovez was attacked late on
Saturday while walking in wooded areas near lakes Lamar and Terlago.
The 69-year-old plumber suffered non-lethal leg and arm injuries.
"It suddenly appeared in front of me. It must have been scared by the
sight of my dog, but I was even more afraid. I did not even have time
to run away, it was on me in a second," the man was quoted as saying
from hospital by the La Stampa newspaper.
Bears are an endangered species, and the woods near Trento have been
repopulated with the wild animals as part of an EU-funded programme.
As a result, their encounters with humans have become more common -
with dire consequences for both man and beast.
Since 2014, three people in the area have been hurt by bears, while a
bear blamed for one of the attacks, 18-year-old female Danica,
accidentally died while being sedated. Mindful of that precedent,
animal lobby groups urged authorities not to overreact.
Before hunting down the bear, "we need to understand better what
happened," World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Italy said in a statement,
suggesting that the victim of the attack, or his dog, may have
"unwittingly" provoked the bear.
According to WWF, speaking loudly when walking in the woods is
usually enough to scare bears away. The animals may attack if humans
come too close, with female bears acting in defence of their cubs
more likely to be aggressive.
Another group, the Hunting Abolition League (LAC), said it would
legally challenge the capture order. Its local representative,
Caterina Rosa Marino, said that "bears are not the problem, [the
problem is] the lack of information" on how to deal with them.
But renowned mountain climber Reinhold Messner, who hails from nearby
South Tyrol, said there was a balance to be struck between promoting
wildlife conservation in Italy's mountain areas and ensuring the
livelihoods of local communities.
"We don't need to kill, but we need to limit. We need a safe number
of bears and wolves, so that they may not represent a danger for men
and flocks [of sheep]," Messner wrote on La Stampa.
"We cannot live under the paradox of fighting the depopulation of the
mountains while at the same time supporting the unregulated return of
bears and wolves," he added, calling for "excess" wild animals to be
moved to other areas.