Shooting of adored rare bear by Italian villager sparks outrage

ONE of the world’s rarest bears has been shot dead by an Italian villager who claimed to have fired on the adored animal out of fear for his own safety.

The female bear, known as Amarena because of its fondness for cherries, was killed by a 55-year-old man armed with a rifle on the outskirts of the town of San Benedetto dei Marsi, in the Abruzzo region of central Italy.

The incident sparked outrage and an outpouring of grief, with authorities and conservationists warning that it threatened the future of the species.

Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the shooting. If convicted of killing the animal, a protected species, the man could be given a prison sentence of up to two years.

Amarena was a Marsican bear, a subspecies of the Eurasian brown bear. They live only in central Italy and there are only 50 to 60 remaining in the wild.

Marco Marsilio, the president of Abruzzo, described the shooting as “a very grave act… that leaves us with pain and anger”.

“In all these years, communities both inside and outside the national park have shown themselves able to coexist with bears. Bears in Abruzzo have never represented any threat to humans, even when they have entered inhabited areas,” he said.

Officials from the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise said that the killing was “unjustified” and threatened to take legal action against the man.

The bear was shot just outside the confines of the national park.

“I find it difficult to believe this was really about self-defence,” said Luciano Sammarone, the director of the national park. “Amarena has never attacked anyone.”

The man who shot the bear has been identified and questioned by the police.

He reportedly told them: “I fired because I was scared. I found it on my property. It was an impulsive, instinctive act.”

Amarena was a particularly fertile female and its loss would have an impact on the future of the tiny Marsican bear population, officials said.

Rangers were trying to locate its two cubs and will then make a decision as to whether they can survive in the wild on their own.

Gilberto Pichetto, the Italian environment minister, said that the shooting would be investigated thoroughly.

“We need to get to the bottom of this serious episode and above all we must now protect Amarena’s cubs,” he said.

There are only 50 to 60 Marsican bears remaining in the wild in central Italy