breaking latest news – It was a bear that killed Andrea Papi. The suspicions that emerged when the body was found were confirmed by the autopsy: the 26-year-old Trentino runner died following the attack by a bear who, once identified, it will be shot down. Dad’s the first death of a human being in Italy caused by a bear will remain in history.
A death that occurred while Andrea was running, his great passion being a fan of mountain running. He was on his way back home, in his Caldes in Val di Sole in Trentino, where his partner Alessia was waiting for him to go to dinner with friends. And, instead, Andrea never returned home. His life was cut short by one of the approximately one hundred bears living in Trentino and which two days ago was on the forest road in the Contre area at the foot of Malga Grum in the Caldes woods.
The runner tried to defend himself with a stick (it was all bloodied) but the bear mortally wounded him. Near the discovery of the mobile phone and water bottle. Difficult to reconstruct if the sportsman found the animal behind a curve and both got scared, or a female bear defended herself because together with the cubs.
Even before waiting for the results of the autopsy examination ordered by the Trento Public Prosecutor’s Office – it opened a model 45 file with no crimes and no suspects – the local population had no doubts: “it was the bear”. In the last period, about a dozen specimens had been reported in that area. The latest attack, a month ago in nearby Val di Rabbi where a man was wounded in the head and arm.
The presence of bears in Trentino, now even more so, had always worried nearby South Tyrol which was in turn struggling with wolves. The President of the Autonomous Province of Trento, Maurizio Fugatti in the evening during a press conference it was very clear, “too many times, in recent years, certain bodies called upon to respond to the requests of the provincial administration have been concerned only with the well-being of plantigrades, forgetting about those who live in our territories and now this path must be reversed”. Governor Fugatti announced that he has signed a bear culling order that killed the runner but also of three other specimens: “there are potentially 4 bears to kill, there are also MJ5, JJ4 and M62”.
Regarding the presence in the area of over a hundred specimens, Fugatti specified that “it is not sustainable” and then referred to the final objective of the initial 1999 project, i.e. hosting a population of between 40 and 60 plantigrades, “the supernumerary of exemplary compared to the original forecasts must be removed”. WWF Italy has also expressed itself in favor of the killing (removal) of the killer bear. “If an individual shows overt dangerous behaviors for human safety, reaching the point of fatally attacking a person, the removal of this individual decreases the risks of new similar episodes and improves the social acceptance of the population towards the species – the association communicated environmentalist –. Recourse to removal must, and it is always good to reiterate it, be the last solution”.
The WWF itself has long been asking for adequate signage but also the liberalization of the use of anti-bear pepper spray, communication campaigns with residents and tourists on good behavioral practices in areas where bears are present. On these aspects, WWF Italy is clear, “the Autonomous Province of Trento has been seriously lacking for some time”.
Go to the article