It's over there bear escape JJ4 responsible for death of the young 26-year-old runner, Andrea Papi. Identified thanks to the genetic analyzes ordered by the Public Prosecutor of Trento, theshe was captured in the night through a tube trap, a sort of cylindrical cage, together with his children who were then released. After being sedated JJ4 is now in custody in the wildlife center of the Casteller waiting to understand what will be his fate.
“The Rangers caught Jj4 in a tube trap at around 23pm last night. The capture demonstrates that our structures are able to capture dangerous animals quickly,” said the president of the Province of Trento, Maurizio Fugattiat the press conference. “It is news that we wish we could have given in 2020, when we asked to capture Jj4. Today there is bitterness about what happened in the meantime,” Fugatti said. JJ4, in fact, had already attacked two hikers in June 2020, also on Mount Peller.
Orsa JJ4: Now it's a fight over her fate
On April 8, Governor Fugatti had ordered the capture and killing of the bear after the death of Andrea Papi. The Tar of Trento has, however, suspended the order of killing the bear. Yesterday the Province of Trento presented new documentation requesting the revocation of the stop. "We hope that with the filing of the documents requested from the administration, and in addition to the report that Ispra, from what we learn from our interlocutions, intends to send to the court in the next few hours, the Tar can rule for the revocation of the slaughter suspension. Finally, we hope that the collegial council chambers, set in the decree for May 11, can be brought forward”, said the president of the Autonomous Province of Trento.
If the Tar gives the green light the felling mode expected is theeuthanasia. “This is the tool we have identified to be able to cause less suffering to the animal. There is no option to shoot, which is used only for killings in conditions of immediate danger" said the director of the Department of Civil Protection, Forests and Wildlife of the Province of Trento, Raffaele DeCol.
The associations ask to save the bear JJ4 from killing
Enpa, Leidaa and Oipa warned the Autonomous Province of Trento not to carry out "any action that could harm the safety of the bear Jj4". The decree of the Regional Administrative Court (Tar) which suspends the culling order, argue the three bodies in a note, "must be strictly adhered tootherwise we will defend the bear and her cubs in all ways permitted by law”. There Low (The Anti-Vivisection League) instead requested a meeting with Fugatti to "organize the bear's transfer to the shelter-sanctuary identified abroad by the association" reads a note. Also the Italian Association for the Defense of Animals and the Environment (Aida) asks that the bear Jj4 "be immediately put in a position to be transferred to a protected sanctuary among those indicated by the Lav which are located within the European Union".
The difficult coexistence between bears and humans in Trentino
The governor of the Province does not want to stop at the bear JJ4 and asks the decrease in attendance of bears in Trentino and the culling of the most dangerous ones. “We are now taking action to capture Mj5 on which there is already the opinion of Ispra for the shooting down and of M62, for which we will ask for a new opinion. Catching Mj5 will be difficult because he is an aggressive and very fast male, he can even cover 30 kilometers a day. The three bears are the aspect that interests us immediately, but it is all the same the theme of the future of the project is important, that is i numbers must go back to the origin, that is to one fifty specimens that would have dispersed over the Alps. We have to work on this” said Fugatti.
Bears in Trentino were reintroduced between the 90s and 2000s, importing some specimens from Slovenia. Today, especially around the Brenta Dolomites (the western part of the province of Trento, broadly speaking in the area of Madonna di Campiglio) there are almost a hundred of them: here the map of bears in Trentino. The debate about their presence, following the runner's death, is back in force. It should be noted, that prior to this case, as mentioned in an interview with FIRSTonline da Elena Guella, vice president of the Tridentine mountaineering society (SAT), the episodes of aggression by bears against men in the last 20 years could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
