New problem bear in the Karwendel?
14 pregnant sheep and a lamb torn - "I was exhausted"
Created: 2022-05-27Updated: 2022-05-27, 12:35 p.m
By: Johannes Welte
This picture of a bear was taken by a wildlife camera near Ohlstadt in early May © private
One or more brown bears have been out and about in the border area between Bavaria and Tyrol for weeks.
Again and again sheep fall victim to them.
Action is now to be taken.
Mittenwald
- For weeks one or more brown bears have been moving through the border area of Bavaria and Tyrol.
Wildlife cameras recorded bears near Ohlstadt and Mittenwald in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and near Scharnitz (Tyrol).
Since no animals have been killed so far, the alpine farmers have remained calm.
But now a bear has killed at least 15 sheep in the Karwendel.
On Tyrolean territory, but right on the Bavarian border.
Brown bear on the move in the Karwendel: danger for Bavarian sheep owners
Manfred Maurer from Leutasch is one of the two owners of the sheep: "I was called on Ascension Day by a hunter who had discovered a dead sheep near the Bäralp.
We went there straight away and climbed up.” The Bäralp is located above the Karwendel valley, just 500 meters from the Bavarian border, in the middle of a popular hiking area.
The sheep belong to Maurer and another sheep farmer.
Maurer: "When we were up there, we saw the dead sheep, terribly beaten up, four were still bleeding." So the tear couldn't have been that long ago.
One of the torn sheep © Maurer
Trouble for shepherds on the Bavarian border: the bear tore highly pregnant ewes
"There were 14 pregnant sheep and a lamb," says Maurer about the dead animals.
Some sheep are still missing.
"The bear bit the sheep on the head, slashed the skin and tore out the innards." The tracks showed that it was a bear.
15 torn sheep in Tyrol: did the bear come from Bavaria?
How did the bear get into the three-strip electric fence of a meter high?
Maurer: "On the Bavarian side of our pasture, the electric fence was broken over three meters." In some areas, the pasture reaches directly to rocky slopes over which the sheep cannot climb. There is no fence there.
Maurer: "Maybe the bear climbed in there." Tragic: The sheep had only been driven to the Bäralp on the previous Saturday.
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Sheep owner horrified after Bärenriss: "I was exhausted"
Maurer: "When the dead sheep saw each other, I was exhausted.
If the bear kills a sheep because it's hungry, I can live with that.
But if he kills 14 sheep just to make them dead, I have no more sympathy.” Maurer continues: “From a political point of view, that's outrageous.
The politicians are not able to protect the 80,000 animals with which the alpine pastures in Tyrol are pounded.” The alpine season hasn't really started yet.
"Most of the cattle, goats and sheep are yet to be found."
Border between Bavaria and Tyrol: one bear or several?
DNA samples taken
Whether it's the same bear that walked into the photo trap in the border area in the past few weeks.
Maurer: "That's very likely." However, the DNA samples that were taken on the Bäralp would have to be compared with those of the other tracks.
Maurer and his friend drove the remaining sheep back into the valley on Thursday.
You can find more current news from the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen at Merkur.de/Garmisch-Partenkirchen.