Current:Home > FinanceRifle slaying of a brown bear in Italy leaves 2 cubs motherless and is decried by locals, minister-LoTradeCoin
Rifle slaying of a brown bear in Italy leaves 2 cubs motherless and is decried by locals, minister
View Date:2024-12-24 00:40:45
ROME (AP) — The slaying of an endangered brown bear near an Italian national park left her two young cubs motherless and sparked outrage on Friday in Italy.
Voicing anger and dismay over the killing of the bear in the mountainous Abruzzo region were Italy’s environment minister and animal rights advocates. Locals, including families with small children, would stop and watch the bear and her cubs on the animal family’s frequent evening excursions through streets of towns near the park.
The National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise described the slain animal, nicknamed Amarena — or Black Cherry in Italian — as one of its most prolific brown bears. Locals affectionately coined the name because cherries and black cherries were among the bear’s favorite foods, Corriere della Sera daily said.
Italian police were investigating the shooting late Thursday night in the town of San Benedetto dei Marsi. The man who shot the bear with a rifle told police the bear was on his property and he felt in danger, the Italian news agency ANSA said.
The marsican brown bear, endemic to central Italy, is considered at elevated risk of extinction. The park says some 60 bears live within the park or in its surrounding areas.
“The killing of a marsican female bear is a grave episode, on which it’s dutiful to shed light as quickly as possible,’' said Italy’s environment minister, Gilberto Pichetto.
“Our commitment is aimed also at the protection of the bear’s cubs, doing everything possible so that they can remain free,’' the minister said in a written statement.
The head of World Wildlife Fund’s Italy office, Luciano Di Tizio, called the bear’s slaying a “very grave, unjustifiable crime of nature” and the result of a “constant campaign against wildlife.”
The motherless cubs aren’t yet self-sufficient and thus are at high risk, triggering the search for them in the parklands, he added.
“A self-assured, but completely peaceful bear, Amarena was part of the collective imagination and was the subject of pride in a land that has, in the bear, a symbol” of local nature, Di Tizio said.
Lately in Italy, the theme of bear vs. humans has taken on political connotations and landed in front of the courts. Earlier this year, an administrative court’s ruling spared, for now, the life of a brown bear who fatally attacked a runner on a mountain trail in Italy’s Alpine region.
Local political authorities had issued an order to have the 17-year-old female bear, known as Jj4, euthanized. A court hearing on the bear’s fate is expected in December. Animal rights groups have challenged the order to put down the bear.
The brown marsican bear which was killed on Thursday night is a subspecies that is genetically different from alpine bears.
Italian state TV said Friday that Amarena was the mother of another one of the park’s marsican brown bears that met a violent end. That bear, which was fatally struck by a car earlier this year, earned national fame when it broke into a bakery and munched on cookies.
veryGood! (1)
Related
- College football top five gets overhaul as Georgia, Miami both tumble in US LBM Coaches Poll
- NFL Christmas tripleheader: What to know for Raiders-Chiefs, Giants-Eagles, Ravens-49ers
- 3 New Jersey men to stand trial in airport garage shooting that killed 1 Philadelphia officer
- Buffalo Street Books is fueled by community in Ithaca, New York
- Monument erected in Tulsa for victims of 1921 Race Massacre
- As it hypes ad-free quarter, let's revisit NBC's boldest NFL broadcast: a game without announcers
- New York governor signs bill aligning local elections with statewide races
- They're furry. They're cute. They're 5 new species of hedgehogs, Smithsonian scientists confirmed.
- Angels sign Travis d'Arnaud: Former All-Star catcher gets multiyear contract in LA
- 2 men charged with battery, assault in fan's death following fight at Patriots game
Ranking
- Man charged with murder in fatal shooting of 2 workers at Chicago’s Navy Pier
- Morocoin Analysis Center: Prospects of Centralized Exchanges
- Mall shooting in Ocala, Florida: 1 dead, 1 injured at Paddock Mall: Authorities
- What's making us happy: A guide to your weekend viewing
- Joey Graziadei Details Why Kelsey Anderson Took a Break From Social Media
- Are grocery stores open Christmas Day 2023? See details for Costco, Kroger, Publix, more
- Who cooks the most in your home? NPR readers weigh in
- Trump asking allies about possibility of Nikki Haley for vice president
Recommendation
-
Steelers' Mike Tomlin shuts down Jayden Daniels Lamar comparison: 'That's Mr. Jackson'
-
'Wait Wait' for December 23, 2023: With Not My Job guest Molly Seidel
-
Man suspected of trying to steal items in Alaska shot by resident, authorities say
-
Notre Dame football grabs veteran offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock away from LSU
-
Taylor Swift's Dad Scott Swift Photobombs Couples Pic With Travis Kelce
-
Every year, NORAD tracks Santa on his Christmas travels. Here's how it comes together.
-
Toyota recalls 2023: Check the full list of models recalled this year
-
Louisville officers shot suspect who was holding man at gunpoint in apartment, police say