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“Problematic” bear equipped with GPS

The bear was put to sleep for three-quarters of an hour Amt für Jagd und Fischerei Graubünden

Swiss gamekeepers have fitted an increasingly threatening young brown bear with a global positioning satellite (GPS) collar to try to better monitor its movements.

The male bear, temporarily captured in canton Graubünden, is thought to be one of two brown bears currently living in the wild in Switzerland.

The bear, classified as “problematic” as it is less and less afraid of humans, was shot on Sunday with a tranquiliser gun between the Albula and Julier passes, according to the Federal Environment Office.

Vets helped gamekeepers put a GPS collar on the animal before it woke up three-quarters of an hour later.

The bear is suspected of killing two-dozen sheep over the past few weeks in the Tiefencastel region of canton Graubünden.

“We took the decision in mid-July when an animal attacked a flock of sheep at the Flüela pass, despite the fact they were being protected by sheepdogs,” said Hannes Jenny, deputy director of the cantonal hunting and fishing office.

DNA tests should reveal whether this bear is the one responsible for the attacks.

Big lad

The young male, which weighs 98 kilograms, has become more and more troublesome as it doesn’t seem to be scared of humans.

“There have never been any problematic encounters [between the bear and man], but it totally ignores humans, as if they don’t exist,” Jenny added.

For this reason, the Graubünden authorities took the decision, together with the Federal Environment Office, to follow him closely with a GPS system.

From now on, if the bear approaches a flock or a residential area again, gamekeepers will be allowed to let off a firecracker or shoot rubber bullets to frighten him away.

The measure is part of the federal “Bear Strategy”, which was drawn up so that bears and humans can co-exist peacefully but enables regional authorities to shoot-to-kill if public safety is threatened.

“The aim is to establish an artificial contact via the specialists, the gamekeepers, who will try to locate the bear and scare him next time he gets too close to a hamlet, house, farm or bee hive to show him that it is not somewhere he should approach,” said Walter Vetterli, head of the Alps programme at the environment organisation WWF.

Graubünden’s hunting inspector, Georg Brosi, said he wasn’t sure if it was one of the two young bears that were identified recently in the canton, “JJ3” or “JJ4”, or if it was a third bear. A blood test should clarify this question.

swissinfo with agencies

There are an estimated 50,000 brown bears in Europe in separate fragmented populations.
Brown bears are omnivores and feed on plants, berries, roots, fungi, fish, insects and small mammals.
They like to den in a protected spot during the winter months.
Brown bears can grow to a huge size, males up to 350kg, females to 200kg.

Bears, along with wolves and lynxes, were hunted to extinction in the Alps in the 19th century. The last bear in Switzerland was killed in 1904.

A single male brown bear appeared in Müstair valley in southeastern Switzerland in July 2005, crossing over from the Italian side of the border.

The whereabouts of the bear, which caused a sensation in the national media, are unknown.

A second bear was spotted in Zernez on the border of the Swiss National Park in eastern Switzerland in June 2007. Its location is also unknown.

In anticipation of more bears straying into the country, the Federal Environment Office last summer launched a strategy document setting out guidelines for the management of bears on Swiss territory.

This has been welcomed by animal organisations but criticised by everyone else.

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