Bear sighted in Bavaria, first time in 170 years

Bears show up in major cities in the US with shocking regularity. People see a bear, call the police, and the police tranquilize the bear and relocate it. I'm not sure why that wouldn't have worked in this case.

I think the all the uproar because of one bear is a bit ridiculous. There are much worthier animal causes to invest our time and money into and if people are truly concerned they should focus on these. The only reason this happened is because we have infringed upon the natural habitat of the bear.

If you're concerned, give your support to projects that will stop this happening in other places like it has in Bavaria.

Yorkshire beats Bavaria...allegedly.

Tiger Alert - Northern Echo

Mark Viduka in a Celtic shirt ?

Spiegel reports on a hiker that did try to call the authorities multiple times. Too bad they presumably didn't act on it. The hiker seems nuts though:


Emphasis mine.

Wow. No really... Wow.

Grizzly Man (the excellent but sad tale of Timothy Treadwell, not-so-arguably also nuts) is the movie that hiker should see.

While they try to tranquilize them when possible, sometimes it's simply not a good idea. I lived in Anchorage, Alaska for a year and two grizzlies were shot downtown. One of them they fired about 15 rounds at and totally obliterated a Cadillac DeVille in the process. Some bears get confused and disoriented when near cars and go a little crazy leaving them no choice but to shoot them.

A couple of months ago, my brother in law in Minnesota hit one with his car. The car was fine but the bear was roaring like crazy afterwards. It took them a day to track him and shoot him. They finally got him not far from the school my nephew attends. The post mortem showed only bruises and cuts but his pain made him mad and there was no option but to shoot him.

Shooting this critter just points how little the Germans value nature. They have little naturdenkmals about but no real nature. To them, nature is a place to take a walk or hike...for humans.

They didn't just shoot one bear. They wiped out an entire species in the country...yet again after 170yrs. History repeats itself...always

I tell you what. Sod all these special forces hunting around the mountains for Bin Laden. Send in a couple of German hunters. He will be killed in a matter of hours

actually, not quite true. indigenous (to Bavaria) bears were wiped out years ago. This is a modern problem caused by the re-introduction of bears to the Italian alps. You could equally say this bear was infringing on our natural habitat.

@Crawlie: it would have saved the US government a lot of money!

I'm not sure if JJ1 would have had time to develop cloning technology with all that running around he was doing.

That´s just it. They had the sudden chance to recover some of their heritage but they blew it, possibly forever. So much for the natural ecosystem, or for trying. Imagine say Tanzania or Kenya sometime in the future and say they´re down to their last lion. Even if the lion was rampaging around the countryside, wouldn´t you think there´d be some kind of solution other than blasting the lion away?? (I don´t know, put him in a game reserve, put a transmitter on him, whatever.)

Again, if they really wanted to tranquilize this bear, they could have. I think this is what they wanted. Kill the bear, quickly and efficiently before it becomes a huge issue. They had an artificial deadline and only had a few days (since it took them a week or two to find him) to capture the bear alive. Why not shift the deadline?

A bear too accustomed to human vicinity and food "tasted" a sleeping Boy Scout in Utah was shot after it returned to the campsite during a spareribs BBQ. So it's not just a Bavarian problem. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../a112056D01.DTL

News from Yellowstone:

National Park Service officials today confirmed reports of the shooting
of two tourists in Yellowstone National Park early this season. The
shootings were authorized under a newly implemented policy to protect bears.

"I know this sort of thing upsets people," said the assistant director,
"but we had no choice in dealing with the problem. Human-grizzly
encounters are simply too dangerous. We attempted relocation of both
tourists, but they just returned the next season. The potential danger to
bears had become too great, and we had to remove these tourists
permanently."

Apparently both tourists had been involved in a number of interactions
with bears in the past. Park Service sources said the two had been
relocated the previous season to what were believed to be their home
ranges--New York City and Austin,Texas. Despite the distance, both managed
to return to Wyoming this year, intimidating grizzlies attempting to
catch fish after emerging from hibernation.

"Some may think tourists are 'cute' or 'interesting'," said one
official, "but they can be very unpredictable and dangerous."

She recounted attempts last year to keep one of the tourists, known to
rangers as "Al," from approaching a grizzly with his camera to take
close-ups. "It was a close call for two of our rangers. Al suddenly swung
his hiking stick at them. He caught one on the shoulder. They finally
got a tranquilizer dart into him."

The other tourist, known as "Sonja," had been seen several times
feeding marshmallows to bears. Attempts to remove her from the area resulted
in deep fingernail scratches on the neck and arms of two rangers. She
also called them nasty names, one recalled.

Acknowledging controversy over the policy of shooting tourists who
return to areas habituated by bears, the assistant director said, "We can't
have it both ways. If we want our park safe for wildlife, then we have
to do whatever is necessary to protect it."

Meanwhile, the Congressional Subcommittee on National Parks, of the
Interior Committee, announced an investigation into the policy of
authorizing the shootings. "It's a real shame when something this
unfortunate happens," said the committee chairman. "It could have been avoided
with more reasonable policies."

Hearings begin as soon as Congress returns from the summer recess.

Shamelessly stolen from an email.

Lawyer sues Germany on behalf of dead bear

Ha, love the Yellowstone piece.

Seems they didn't need to shoot him at all (well, we all knew that already).

They could have just borrowed this cat to do a bit of patrolling.

That's hilarious!! Cat's can be mean buggers. Bears would be wise to stay away from mine...he even bites the hand that feeds him. As well as feet, legs, or anything else he can wrap his gargantuan paws around.

I knew a rabbit that would do that. Chased everything out of the yard including the cats.

Courtesy of Monthy Python

Two adult coyotes were shot last Sunday in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. They had attacked a 100 pound Rhodesian Ridgeback on Saturday, leaving it with wounds bad enough to need stitches, and two Jack Russell terriers on Sunday "expressing what appeared to be culinary interest", according to the park's spokesman.
The same controversy between animal right defenders and authorities has flamed up as about Bruno here.

Love it.
"So, Yip, whatcha say? We gonna sauté this mofo?" "Nah, Yap, slow braise the way to go. Trust me."

So it looks as if they are going to stuff & display him now.

Bruno the Bear to Be Stuffed

How come we get so excited only because of seeing this poor animal walking around?

In other countries it ain't such a big deal to run into a bear if you drive on a forest road or, in the mountains...

If I was for the bear, I would grumble something like: "Stop chasing me, fck off and mind your own businesses and your own lives, and let me live, leave me alone!"
(Now, I think.. that was just the angry little bear in me, talking, for once... LOL)

So according to the article FuzzyTony linked to, Bruno will be on display spring 2008...can we see him yet? ...has anyone?

Bruno's new gaff

The article is in german though - too lazy to find something in English. I'm sure that you can weed out the pertinent information though.

If the language barrier is a problem for you, I suggest that you contact one of the professionals who provide a tourism service to foreigners that need a bit of support finding their way around.

Hope that helps.

I read something a few weeks ago about Bruno's brother having been killed - don't remember where, but not in Germany - for the same reason as Bruno: he was venturing too close to human settlements. Seems delinquency runs in the family.

Forget what I had just said (it's deleted anyway). JJ3 was shot in Switzerland earlier this year.

I read "Beer sighted in Bavaria, first time in 170 years". Somehow that didn't make a lot of sense. I think I have to get my eyesight checked.