Deadly Bear attacks - Romania (1 Viewer)

[Andy Adcock]

Have Brown Bears become so common in Eastern Europe that they pose a genuine threat to people.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50473443

Is it just a ploy, an excuse to start hunting again and leaving that animal in agony for almost a day, to die of it's injuries is horrible, I thought Romanian cops were armed, couldn't they have shot it?

 

[Farnboro John]

Have Brown Bears become so common in Eastern Europe that they pose a genuine threat to people.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50473443

Is it just a ploy, an excuse to start hunting again and leaving that animal in agony for almost a day, to die of it's injuries is horrible, I thought Romanian cops were armed, couldn't they have shot it?

Maybe they could, but maybe under Romanian law they could be prosecuted for doing so without the relevant ministry's permission? Written constitutions lead you down that road: in California they've had more than one instance of firefighters not being allowed to bulldoze fire-breaks in front of fires because the habitat is protected. Sometimes common sense is better.

I note that the article mentioned three human deaths and eventually noted that in addition to the bear illustrated, two others had been killed in RTA. So 3 all: you might call that even, except that even if the touted bear population of 6000 is right (which seems to be seriously in doubt!) they are still outnumbered by millions of Romanian humans. Anthropocentricity is a terrible thing.

John

 

[Andy Adcock]

Maybe they could, but maybe under Romanian law they could be prosecuted for doing so without the relevant ministry's permission? Written constitutions lead you down that road: in California they've had more than one instance of firefighters not being allowed to bulldoze fire-breaks in front of fires because the habitat is protected. Sometimes common sense is better.

I note that the article mentioned three human deaths and eventually noted that in addition to the bear illustrated, two others had been killed in RTA. So 3 all: you might call that even, except that even if the touted bear population of 6000 is right (which seems to be seriously in doubt!) they are still outnumbered by millions of Romanian humans. Anthropocentricity is a terrible thing.

John

I thought just that.

 

[jurek]

If somebody is interested if would be better to read actual articles from Romania, not the BBC review.

There is lots of literature about preventing human-bear conflict both from Europe and North America. Bears don't usually attack or kill people, so the number of attacks is not related to density of the bears, so trophy hunting is not a solution.

The effective solution is to stop particular situations which put bears close to humans and create dangerous situations. Especially humans leaving food, like fishermen discarding fish, herders discarding dead livestock, rubbish dumps accessible to bears etc. Hunting can actually increase danger to people, if hunters bait bears with food. In the early 20. century in Poland, brown bears were hunted using dead horses as bait. The result were bears coming to homesteads and attacking horses (but not other livestock) because hunters taught the bears that horses are good food.

 

[Steve Babbs]

I know in Brasov there was an issue with bears coming to bins. Indeed I went to Romania hoping to see them but they had the good sense to improve the litter situation to stop them coming by the time I was there. I don't know if they haven't been so sensible in other places.

 

[Farnboro John]

If somebody is interested if would be better to read actual articles from Romania, not the BBC review.

There is lots of literature about preventing human-bear conflict both from Europe and North America. Bears don't usually attack or kill people, so the number of attacks is not related to density of the bears, so trophy hunting is not a solution.

The effective solution is to stop particular situations which put bears close to humans and create dangerous situations. Especially humans leaving food, like fishermen discarding fish, herders discarding dead livestock, rubbish dumps accessible to bears etc. Hunting can actually increase danger to people, if hunters bait bears with food. In the early 20. century in Poland, brown bears were hunted using dead horses as bait. The result were bears coming to homesteads and attacking horses (but not other livestock) because hunters taught the bears that horses are good food.

Absolutely fair points.

John