One week after the discovery of
Andrea Papi
's body in the woods of Mount Peller, there are two bears being hunted in Trentino.
The first is the female specimen Jj4, responsible for the attack on the 26-year-old runner, identified thanks to the laboratory analyzes ordered by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Trento.
The second is Mj5
, an 18-year-old bear that the Province of Trento has requested to be slaughtered following the attack on a hiker in the Rabbi valley, which took place on 5 March.
Runner dead: three thousand in Caldes at the funeral of Andrea Papi
Although the two specimens have not yet been identified, operations are already underway to place the tube traps, which will allow their collection and subsequent suppression.
The question remains open regarding
a third specimen, M62
, for which a withdrawal request has been sent because it is too confident of humans.
The bear, which has never attacked anyone but is responsible for various damages, is keeping a team of specialized operators from the Trentino Forestry Department busy in a complex deterrence operation.
As specified by the President of the Province,
Maurizio Fugatti,
"The bear Jj4 had been the subject of an order for the killing" signed on June 24, 2020, for the attack against two hikers, still on Mount Peller.
"From that moment - the governor recalled - a troubled process began with the administrative justice bodies which did not allow us to follow up on the ordinance".
Dead runner, Paolo Zanghellini: 'Radiocollar is not a management tool'
Fugatti, speaking of a "feeling of emotion and anger for what happened", also wanted to clarify how the request to capture the specimen was presented several times in Ispra, always with a negative result.
Jj4 has been monitored for over two years.
The radio collar with which it is equipped was discharged last August, but it is believed that it is not far from the area of the attack on Papi.
The presence of an identifying mark on the ear will allow immediate recognition, without the need to resort to new genetic analyses.
More complex, however, appears the capture of Mj5, a specimen weighing an estimated 350 kilograms for which the green light has arrived from Ispra.
In this case,
a team of specialized operators is trying to reconstruct its movements through the genetic analysis of the samples found in the woods.
Unlike the female specimens, the males are less sedentary, and can cover long distances in short periods.
The announcement of the two levies generated reactions from
animal welfare associations
.
The WWF has asked the governor of the Veneto,
Luca Zaia
, to open up the possibility of transferring some bears to the Veneto (but not those considered problematic), while the
Lav
has said it is available to transfer the specimens intended for slaughter.
The
Aidaa
association then wrote to the
Minister of the Environment
Gilberto Pichetto Fratin in an attempt to block operations in the woods of Trentino.
The former Minister of the Environment, Sergio Costa, also joined the appeal.
"Why kill the bear - said the vice president of the Chamber - if there are other ways of coexistence?".
On this point, however, Fugatti was clear.
"To those who make philosophy and culture on the management of the bear and on the expected levies - commented the governor - we say to rest assured: we have another 70 specimens to move in addition to those that will be slaughtered".
ANSA Agency
In Caldes the funeral of the runner killed by the bear Ji4.
The father: 'Let's feel anger' - Trentino AA/S
In 2022 the animal had already attacked, the provincial council of Trento had asked for it to be slaughtered (ANSA)