Italy vowed on Wednesday to save a brown bear which has strayed over the national border and now risks being shot dead by German hunters.
The bear, which has allegedly killed seven Bavarian sheep and broken into a henhouse, is believed to come from the Adamello-Brenta park in northern Italy. Bavarian environment chief Werner Schnappauf gave a green light for the animal to be killed on Monday, saying it was a threat because it seemed to have developed a taste for fresh meat.
The move has shocked animal lovers in Italy and on Wednesday Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio said he had instructed a top ministry official to "save the bear". He said he had contacted provincial authorities with a view to getting the bear back onto Italian soil. He gave no details about how this was to be done.
The brown bear appears to have wandered about 80 km from its home, passing through Austria and into the Oberammagau area of Bavaria late last week.
German experts were initially excited, announcing that it was the first wild bear seen in the country for about 170 years. But then farmers began to report the bear's alleged attacks on livestock.
Pecoraro Scanio reprimanded Bavarian officials for what he saw as an unnecessarily brutal approach to rotecting hens and sheep.
"Instead of an ancient approach like just shooting the bear dead, they should use more modern methods," he said, suggesting the installation of low voltage wires or firing blank bullets to frighten it.
"The bear certainly wasn't aware that it had crossed the border," he noted.
The German readiness to kill the brown bear has shocked many in Italy, where experts noted that bears never attack humans unless they are cornered. Wild bears roam free in two of Italy's national parks. One of them - the Adamello-Brenta park - specially imported 10 bears from Slovenia a few years ago.
The bear which has recently appeared in Bavaria is thought to be the offspring of one of the imported Slovenian bears.
Aldo Di Benedetto, director of the Abruzzo National Park, invited Germans to come and see the bears in his park. That way, they would see the animals "not as a danger but as part of a cultural and environmental heritage," he said.
He conceded however that Bavarian farmers ought to be given compensation for damage caused by the Italian bear, so as to "relax tensions". Bavaria's decision to allow the animal to be killed has also shocked many Germans, who note that the bear is part of their national history.
A survey carried out by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung found that 82% of its readers would let the bear live, if given the choice. Meanwhile, the search for the animal by hunters in Bavaria has found no trace of it in the last two days, leading some to conclude that it has turned around and headed back towards Italy.
