In the latest case, a 20-year-old man was ripped to shreds last week by a bear searching for food, as he was sleeping on a bench in an alleyway near downtown Brasov, in central Romania.
Local hunters, authorized by the environment ministry to track down the animal to prevent further attacks, found the female the next day, not far from the place where she had attacked her victim, and shot her dead as she tried to rush at them.
"Brown bears usually don't attack people. On the contrary, they'll run away if they see one," said Dorel Noaghea, the head of the Brasov hunters' association.
According to him, man was to blame for a dozen incidents in recent years, in which several people were killed or injured.
"He does not respect the bears' habitat, or worse, tries to turn them into a tourist attraction," offering them food to allow visitors to take pictures alongside them.
Noaghea, a 51-year-old forester who says he has "run into hundreds of bears" during outings in the Carpatian mountains, argues that bears from the area surrounding Brasov began venturing into town in the late 1970s, when the holiday resort started spreading to the neighbouring woods.
Frightened at first, the bears slowly grew used to rummaging in dustbins for food, under the eyes of amused locals, who have since nicknamed them "binmen bears".
And this quest for food has led them to some unusual places.
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu