On the occasion of recent media reports about free-roaming brown bears in the Alpine region, the German Animal Welfare Federation points out that scaremongering and unsettling the population are not expedient. Reports of bear sightings, paw prints and feeding marks repeatedly raise the question of whether bears are a threat to humans. This was triggered by the killing of a jogger in northern Italy at the beginning of last week, who - as it turned out afterwards - had presumably come between a mother bear and her three cubs.
"We are very touched by the fate of the jogger. But you can hardly blame the leading female bear for defending her cubs against intruders," says Patrick Boncourt, bear expert at the German Animal Welfare Federation. He criticizes that the resulting scaremongering about supposed 'killer bears' is not expedient: "As with the wolf, the discussion is sometimes used politically to push through populist measures instead of fact-based solutions. The bears in the German-Austrian border region, which have been behaving completely naturally and inconspicuously for a long time and currently pose no threat, will also suffer from this distorted portrayal."
PREVENTION PROTECTS AGAINST ATTACKS BY BEARS ON "FARM ANIMALS"
Another cause for concern in this context are three sheep in the Bavarian district of Rosenheim that were presumably killed by a bear. In the view of animal welfare activists, it is not surprising that male bears, which go in search of mates after hibernation, also kill roe deer or unprotected grazing animals in rare cases, as ripe berries, fruit or other plant food sources are not yet available. Prevention is particularly important, says Boncourt: "Do not leave any leftover food or garbage containers standing or lying around unprotected in the affected regions. Beehives and grazing animals should be protected with strong electric fences or livestock guarding dogs; if possible, grazing animals should be stabled at night. Then the bears will move away again and not get used to finding food near humans." Numerous studies have confirmed this shy behavior of bears.
PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE IS POSSIBLE
In many countries, some of which are very modern and densely populated, management shows that it is possible for humans and bears to coexist peacefully. "Ultimately, we just have to accept the return of this predator, which was originally native to us, in our minds and simply learn to deal with the presence of bears in an objective and appropriate manner. Corresponding management plans have been in place in Bavaria for some time, so there is no urgent need for political action. If we take these few principles to heart, then the brown bear in the Alps also has a realistic chance of surviving here," says Boncourt.
