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Italian authorities on Tuesday announced that they had captured a brown bear overnight after it killed a jogger earlier this month.
The fate of the 17-year-old female bear, known as JJ4, is now in the hands of an Italian court, which will determine whether it should be euthanized. The debate has fueled tensions over successful efforts to reintroduce the brown bear to the region after it nearly went extinct in the 1990s.
The bear was found in Val Meledrio, a valley in the mountains of Northern Italy, the provincial government of Trento said in a news release on Tuesday.
The president of the Province of Trento, Maurizio Fugatti, said there was “satisfaction mixed with bitterness” over the arrest.
Mr Fugatti also tried to have JJ4 euthanized in 2020, after the bear attacked the father and his adult son in June of that year.
“We want to announce this in 2020, but it was killed earlier, then it was taken, it has been blocked by the court,” he said.
Authorities are looking for the bear after investigators used genetic tests to determine whether JJ4 had attacked Andrea Papi, 26, a jogger from Caldes, a town in Trento. Mr. Papi was found in the woods and an autopsy concluded that he died of injuries caused by a bear on April 5 or 6. Mr. Papi was the first Italian to be killed by a bear in modern times, Italian news agencies reported. , ANSA.
After genetic tests confirmed that JJ4 had assaulted Mr. Papi, Mr. Fugatti signed an order last week for his arrest. They have also issued an order to kill the bear, but the order is on hold, pending a decision by the local court, which is scheduled to meet on May 11.
Mr. Fugatti said after the death of Mr. Papi, that the other authorities in Italy have paid attention to the goodness of those forts, and that it is not enough for the safety of the people who live in the same area.
They also sought to euthanize bear MJ5, which attacked people in March.
There will be an estimated 73 to 92 bears in Trento by 2021, the government says. The brown bear population in the area had dwindled to three or four bears in the 1990s and faced extinction before the project, Life Ursus, brought 10 bears from Slovenia to the area between 1999 and 2002.
Animal welfare groups have pushed back against his efforts. On Monday, the advocacy group Animalisti Italiani said the provincial government had not done enough to reduce the possibility of dangerous interactions between bears and humans.
“Our cohabitation with the large predators that have always lived in our country is not only possible, with the right precautions, but also necessary,” the group said in a statement.
The forest department of Trento caught JJ4 this week using a tube trap and brought him to the local wildlife center. He was found with three two-year-old bears, who were thought to be independent and abandoned, officials said.
At the wildlife center, JJ4 was given fruit and vegetables, officials said. He weighs about 330 pounds and is healthy.
Ilaria Parogni contribute reports.
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