(Hint: for copy-and-paste, if necessary open in separate browser tab via menu item PRINT)Bear JJ1 "Bruno"
Source: (e.g.)
JJ1 wiki
In the framework of an international project for the resettlement of brown bears in the European Alps, in 1999-2002 ten bears were brought from Slovenia into the north Italian (Trentino) Nature Park "Ademello-Brenta". The bear JJ1 was born as 1st offspring of mother "Jurka" and father "Joze".
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Around the end of April 2006, JJ1 started wandering, and was spotted in western Austria on May 5. During the following seven weeks he wandered roughly NNE through Tyrol, and repeatedly into Bavaria. His route could be followed by means of the farm animals he killed on his way (mainly sheep, goats, hens, rabbits). The austrian media nicknamed JJ1 "Bruno".
Bruno caused the greatest public stir in Bavaria, which had not seen a bear in the wild since 1835. At first, Bruno was welcomed by the bavarian environment Minister, Werner Schnappauf. It did not take long and the politicians felt that Bruno was now 'getting out of hand'.
In a press interview in which the bavarian premier, Edmund Stoiber, attempted to justify the bear being shot down, he classified Bruno as a "problem bear", in contrast to a "normal bear". This interview is still available on the Web. Further completely unscientific categories originating from the Ministry were "damage bear" and "risk bear".
The decision to shoot Bruno met with massive public resistance, and was taken back, temporarily.
Attempts to catch Bruno with WWF-sponsored traps from Montana were unsuccessful.
A group of four professional Finnish bear hunters was flown in. They spent a couple of weeks trying to catch Bruno alive, assisted by special scandinavian elk dogs. The team was joined by an austrian veterinary anaesthetist with a tranquilizer rifle. They searched cross-border in Bavaria and Tyrol. But in the mountains, Bruno proved to be too quick and too elusive for the Finns. After a couple of weeks they flew off.
Around June 25, the order to kill Bruno was re-issued despite the fact that in Germany, bears are classified as protected animals. Bruno was shot by an appointed unit (?) on June 26, just after he took a morning swim in the lake Spitzingsee. Information on this unit remains undisclosed. The local hunting organization dissociated themselves from the action.
Some reactions
- Minister Schnappauf and the undisclosed unit received a flood of complaints and charges, and even death threats
- the action motivated many parody and political cabaret scenes
- Italy lodged a protest against the killing of JJ1 with the EU Commission
- the italian forest police force CFS stated it would christen one of their helicopters "Orso Bruno"
- the italian environment minister requested that the cadaver be returned to Italy. This was declined by the bavarian environment minister who let the cadaver be stuffed and displayed in a museum showcase "for educational purposes"
- the director of the Munich zoo deplored the action, saying the bear should have been anaesthetized and given a GPS collar
Epilog
Long before Bruno, a number of european countries had adopted a catalog of measures designed to prevent or minimize damage caused by bears while at the same time allowing their existence. Killing them is only foreseen in case of agressive behaviour against human beings.
