Italy is taking an interest in Slovakia's approach to dealing with wayward bears. Direct assistance could soon follow.
Since 2014, the State Protection of Nature (ŠOPSR) agency has operated a Brown Bear Intervention Team in three regions to prevent wild bears from crossing paths with locals, tourists and farmers. This summer, representatives from Italy plan to meet up with their Slovak counterparts to share experience.
“Italian representatives asked us for help with the interpretation of European legislation covering care for protected animals. They also requested practical advice on how to proceed in specific situations," said Juraj Smatana of ŠOPSR, in comments to regional media.
The intervention team stresses the need to monitor bears' movements and behaviour, and to raise popular awareness in order to prevent bear encounters. The Slovak team focuses in particular on animals that have lost their shyness and started to approach human settlements. The team has already disscussed some of these topics in a conference call with their counterparrts from the Italian region of Trentino - Alto Adige.
Slovakia is struggling to handle a rise in bear encounters. There have been several cases of bears attacking tourists, including on a hiking trail in the Low Tatras and in the Poľana sub-region. These prompted calls to urgently address the so-called "bear problem".
Italy has had its own deadly bear encounter case. Back in April 2022, a bear attacked a local runner on a forest path, causing fatal injuries. After the case, the local administration set out to cull at least three bears that were exhibiting problematic behaviour – a move that was met with criticism from ecologists, who argued that it was the first bear-related encounter in Italy that had ever resulted in a death.
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