with VideoResidents and visitors of the town of Arco on the north side of Lake Garda were startled by a brown bear on Wednesday. The animal wandered through the center of the Italian tourist resort.
Caspar Naber
Latest update:
12:06
It was the first time that a bear showed up in the town with about 16,000 inhabitants, five kilometers from the lake, which is also popular with the Dutch. Early risers spotted the beast running down a side street off Via San Catarina, a well-known shopping street, between 5 and 6 a.m. They took photos and videos of the animal and then alerted the mayor. He received hundreds of alarmed phone calls, reports the regional branch of broadcaster RAI.
The mayor in turn alerted the municipal forest rangers, but they found no trace of the bear. The animal probably came from the 2059 meter high mountain Stivo on the northeast side of Lake Garda. According to the Italian broadcaster, a bear was repeatedly spotted there. According to President Maurizio Fugatti of the Autonomous Region of Trentino-South Tyrol, the bear crossed the town to head for the mountain. “We are in close contact with a resident who described the bear as fearful and looking for ways to escape,” he captioned a video showing the bear running in front of a car.
Reintroduction project
Mayor Alessandro Betta called the bear’s appearance in his town “another confirmation that the bear reintroduction project in the province of Trentino needs to be reviewed from a technical and scientific point of view.”
Last Saturday in Cavizzana, about 100 kilometers north, a 19-year-old boy and his mother got the fright of their lives when they suddenly came face to face with a brown bear in the garden. In April, a 26-year-old resident of the nearby village of Caldes experienced the same thing while jogging. He was killed by the bear. Since then, the debate about the bear population in the Autonomous Region of Trentino-South Tyrol has been heated.
The reintroduction of the brown bear in the Italian Alps is based on a wildlife program from 1996. Bears from Slovenia were released three years later. In 2021, 69 units were registered in the Italian region. According to the authorities, the population needs to be reduced by about half to manage the situation.
Complaint
Meanwhile, activists from the Italian animal rights organization Aidaa have announced that they have filed a complaint with the Public Prosecution Service in the regional capital of Trento against the motorist who filmed the bear in Arco. He would have frightened the animal and chased it towards the city center.
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