Munich (dpa / lby) – After the isolated evidence of bears in Upper Bavaria in recent years, the Ministry of the Environment still does not expect bears to become permanently at home in Bavaria. “It is assumed that the bear will not settle here permanently,” said a responsible ministry expert on Thursday in the environmental committee of the state parliament in Munich. It is therefore open whether there is still a bear in the Free State.
Last year there were several signs of life from a bear in Upper Bavaria: In the Bad-Tölz-Wolfratshausen district, paw prints were discovered, which experts clearly assigned to a bear. Shortly before, a bear had walked into a photo trap there – just like a few months earlier in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district. Before that, there had also been evidence of bears in Bavaria in 2019 and 2020.
According to the Ministry of the Environment, it is assumed that the bear last year was one of the animals that was otherwise detected in Austria. It was probably the case “that one of the bears from Austria looked briefly at Bavaria,” said the ministry expert. In Austria, the authorities therefore assume at least three individual animals that were detected in 2022.
Theoretically, there is also a low probability that a fourth bear has been in Bavaria permanently since 2019/20, said the ministry expert. But he emphasized: “This is pure speculation.”
Whether the bear detected last year is currently still in the Free State is an open question. In fact, the bear behaved very calmly, he was obviously very shy. “Basically, it was a showcase bear because he doesn’t let himself be shown,” said the expert.
The nearest bear population lives in Trentino, Italy, about 120 km from Bavaria. Individual animals also occur in the border triangle of Slovenia, Italy and Austria. Young bears in particular migrate long distances over months or years – they are looking for a partner. If they don’t find a female bear, they usually return home to their area of ??origin, so in the case of local bears usually to Trentino.
