emergencies
Italy worries about offspring of shot bear
She-bear Amarena with her cubs on August 25th in San Sebastiano dei Marsi. Now the mother bear has been shot. photo
© UGC/APTN/AP/dpa
A bear from Italy’s Abruzzo National Park is shot dead by a hunter. The search for her two boys has so far been unsuccessful. About 60 brown bears still live in the national park.
After a brown bear was shot down in an Italian national park, the search for her two cubs is in full swing. The animal called Amarena (Black Cherry) was from a last week hunter shot. Her offspring, who are only a few months old, cannot survive without their mother. In the central Italian national park of Abruzzo and its surroundings, attempts are now being made to capture the little bears – but without any success until Monday noon. Many fear it will soon be too late.
The bear was a bit of a celebrity in the region and beyond because she walked through villages with her offspring. Several videos of the small family’s excursions are circulating on the Internet. There were never any incidents. On Thursday, however, Amarena was shot dead by a hunter who said he felt threatened on his property. The public prosecutor’s office has now launched an investigation against the 56-year-old.
Since the death of the mother, there has been a search for offspring. In the first few days, all attempts to lure the two cubs into traps yielded nothing. The shooter from the municipality of San Benedetto dei Marsi has since received death threats. In his neighborhood “Giustizia” (“Justice”) was written on a house wall. A “Justice for bear mama Amarena” demonstration was banned by the authorities. About 60 brown bears still live in the Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo Lazio e Molise, where Amarena was at home.
In Italy, there is always a debate about how to deal with bears that get close to humans. In April, a 26-year-old jogger was attacked and killed by a female bear in the Trentino region.