Bear kills four sheep in Graubünden

The brown bear that wandered over the Swiss border from Italy last week has attacked a herd of sheep.

It killed four members of a group grazing in the lower Engadine in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The bear ate one sheep completely plus portions of two others, according to Hannes Jenny, a biologist with the Graubünden hunting and fishing office. The fourth lay intact.

The herd, which had numbered about 60 animals, was unsupervised. Earlier in the evening, the bear had been spotted nearby.

Jenny said that the incident did not place the animal into the category of problem bear. The bear seems to avoid people and villages.

That was not the case with JJ3, the brown bear that was finally shot down in summer 2008 after repeatedly entering populated areas of southeastern Graubünden.

This new bear was first spotted in Münstertal last Thursday, but details like age, size and precise origin are unknown.

The farmer who lost his sheep will be reimbursed; the federal government will cover 80 per cent of the cost, the canton the remaining 20 per cent.

swissinfo.ch and agencies