26 Jun
2006 - Bavaria, Germany – After several weeks
of wandering through the alpine meadows of Austria
and southern Germany, the first wild brown bear
sighted in Germany for 170 years, was shot in
Bavaria after weeks of attempts of trying to capture
it.
Local authorities said the bear
had become “problematic” because it had exhibited
unusual behaviour, including a lack of fear of
humans that led to the destruction of substantial
amounts of human property and was seen as a risk
to human life. The bear wreaked havoc on local
livestock.
“We regret the loss of the bear,
especially as we were working so hard to catch
the bear alive,” said Jörn Ehlers, a spokesman
for WWF-Germany.
WWF worked with local wildlife
officials to help capture the lone male bear,
organizing the arrival of a team of Finnish experts
with specially-trained dogs to track the bear
down and capture it alive. The team almost captured
the bear on the border region between Tyrol (Austria)
and Bavaria, but was not able to anaesthetize
him.
Since early spring, when the
bear first entered Austria, WWF carried out DNA
analysis in order to identify the bear, concluding
that he originated from an introduced population
in Trentino in northern Italy.
In Europe, there are about 13,000
brown bears in some ten separate fragmented populations,
including Italy, Austria and Slovenia. They are
extinct in the United Kingdom, extremely threatened
in France and endangered in most of Central Europe.
“It is clear that there will
be other bears migrating in this region by using
“green” corridors across the Alps,” said Roland
Melisch, a species expert with WWF-Germany.
“We have to be prepared for
this eventuality and need a cross-border management
plan that lays down how humans and bears can coexist.
The faster this plan is finalized the better.”
Jörn Ehlers
