Do bears rewild in the woods?

 
 
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POSTED: November 18, 2024
 
 
 
 
 

I saw this today in The Guardian

Andrea Papi is the only person known to have been killed by a wild bear in Italy in modern times. But his death in April last year marked a watershed moment in a fierce debate over brown bears, imported into western Trentino from Slovenia as part of a rewilding project 25 years ago, that has pitted politicians against animal activists.

…The community in the valley, which is the only place in the world where wild bears live in such close proximity to humans, made their voices heard loud and clear in a recent consultative ballot organised by a committee set up in Papi’s memory: 98% expressed that they were no longer willing to tolerate the animals, deeming them to be a threat to public safety as well as the local economy.
The organisers hope the vote will reverberate as far as Brussels and force a solution to their problems.

For animal rights’ associations, though, the plebiscite counts as nothing more than “a farce aimed at deceiving people”.