A young jogger was killed by a bear on Wednesday on a hiking trail in northeastern Italy, a first in the country, local authorities said on Friday. Andrea Papi, 26, was running in a wooded and mountainous area near his village of Caldes, in the Trentino region, when he crossed paths with the plantigrade.
Alerted by his family worried about not seeing him return, the rescuers found his body on the night of Wednesday to Thursday in a ravine, carrying deep wounds to the neck, arms and stomach, some of which were clearly caused by a large carnivore. . According to the results of the autopsy carried out on Friday, Andrea Papi succumbed to injuries inflicted by a bear, said a source close to the investigation, confirming information from Italian media. DNA analyzes should make it possible to identify the animal in the coming days.
The local authorities confirmed in the evening the circumstances of the accident and “decided to initiate an urgent operation to bring down the bear” as soon as it is identified, announced the president of the Autonomous Province of Trentino, Maurizio Fugatti, during a press conference. In March, a man had already been attacked by a bear not far from there, reviving the debate on the potential dangerousness of the plantigrades, numerous in the region.
Thanks to the success of the “Life Ursus” project to reintroduce bears to the province between 1996 and 2004, 69 bears were counted in the territory in 2021. They are actually “a hundred when the project only planned for 50”. , thundered Maurizio Fugatti, “a number too large to ensure the cohabitation” of bears with the inhabitants. “It is therefore appropriate to bring this figure back as soon as possible to what was originally planned,” he added.
Annamaria Procacci, of the National Association for the Protection of Animals (Enpa), denounces for her part the absence of preventive actions by the authorities. “Man is not the target of predation by the bear, which on the contrary is a particularly fearful animal keeping a distance” from man, the former environmentalist deputy told AFP. lamenting that no effort is made to “discourage access to areas where mothers and their young are found”.
While also declaring itself opposed to the systematic slaughter of bears involved in non-fatal attacks on walkers, the environmental NGO WWF considered that the bear responsible for the death of the jogger should be put out of harm’s way. “The removal of this individual decreases the risks of new similar incidents and improves the social acceptance of the population towards the species”, argued the NGO in a press release. There are between 120 and 200 bears in Italy, mainly in Trentino and Abruzzo (center) and this is the first fatal accident recorded.
