A bear attacked and killed a jogger on a woodland path in north‑west Italy, marking the first such incident, a source close to the case told AFP on Friday. The victim, 26‑year‑old Andrea Papi, was out running on Wednesday in the mountainous area near his village of Caldes, in the Trentino region. When he failed to return, his family raised the alarm, and a search team recovered his body overnight. He had deep wounds to the neck, arms and chest, and an autopsy conducted on Friday confirmed that a bear was responsible, corroborating earlier Italian news reports.
In March, a man had been attacked by a bear in the same region, sparking a debate about the dangers posed by the animals, which were reintroduced to the area between 1996 and 2004. Following the latest fatality, Trentino region president Maurizio Fugatti announced that the local authority will track and kill the animal once it is identified. The environmental group WWF had already acknowledged that the bear needed to be put down.
However, Annamaria Procacci, a former ecologist deputy now working with the animal‑welfare organization ENPA, criticized the lack of precautions taken by local officials. She noted that bears normally keep their distance from people and argued that authorities should have ensured the public stayed away from zones where female bears were raising cubs.
Comments are closed for this story.