After a bear attacked sheep in the Upper Bavarian district of Rosenheim, Bavaria’s Minister for the Environment, Thorsten Faithr, described human safety as an absolute priority – and, in case of doubt, declared the animal to be possible. “In an emergency, all measures can be considered,” emphasized the Free Voter politician.
“Bavaria is prepared for the bear issue. Human safety is always the focus and has absolute priority,” said Glauber. The facts must now be clarified in detail and the situation on site closely monitored. A spokesman for the Ministry of the Environment said experts from the responsible State Office for the Environment were already on site and were collecting all the knowledge. “Further-reaching measures must be continuously checked by the responsible authorities.” The public will be kept informed of further findings.
A bear tore two sheep in the district of Rosenheim and injured a third, which then had to be killed. “Based on the initial documentation of the animals’ external injuries and the footprints found on site, this incident can be assigned to a bear,” said the State Office for the Environment (LfU) in Augsburg. There was no sighting of the animal or a direct encounter between humans and bears.
The dead sheep were found on a pasture in the border region with Austria on Wednesday. An expert then assessed the situation and took genetic samples, which are now being evaluated. According to the knowledge gained so far, the bear behaves shyly towards humans, as reported by the LfU. However, livestock farmers in the border area of the district to Austria should currently stable their animals at night if possible and take herd protection measures. The authorities could support this with fence material, it said.
Most recently, paw prints were discovered in the Rosenheim and Miesbach districts last weekend. The bear may have already been out and about in Tyrol in March. Traces of individual bears wandering through the Free State are seen from time to time, but a permanent settlement is not expected. But the so-called problem bear Bruno, who was shot in Bavaria in 2006, is still remembered.