Some stories about bears.

 Every so often something pops up in the news about reintroducing into the UK some animal that we’ve not had here for ages, hundreds of years in some cases. One of the latest suggestions has been wolves. I know people who are bemoaning the loss of wolves in Southern Spain, but they have them in the North and farmers moan about them killing their livestock. They’re wild animals, after all, and hunt for food. I’m not convinced that we need them in the UK but they have been suggested as a solution to a surfeit of deer. I have commented before now that we seem to have quite a lot of deer in our corner of the UK, something that was certainly not the case when we moved here in the late 1970s. 

Unlike some places, we do not have problems with wild animals wandering into the centre of town -  not so wild in the case of the goats that wandered into the centre of Llandudno ( I think) during the Coronavirus lockdown. There are places in France and Spain that suffer from wild boar! We get off lightly. 

The small town of San Benedetto dei Marsi in the Abruzzo region of Italy has had bears wandering in from the nearby national park.  Specifically one bear, named Amarena after the local cherries she enjoyed eating, and her two cubs. These are Marsican brown bears which are quote rare and in some danger of extinction. Most of the citizens enjoyed seeing the bear family amble through the town? Then one man got frightened or annoyed or fed up or just plain ornery and got his shotgun and killed Amarena. There has been a bit of an outcry, well, quite a big outcry! People were fond of the bear and she seemed to be mostly harmless. And now animal rights people are looking for the orphaned cubs who will need looking after.

Amarena is not the first bear to be killed in San Benedetto dei Marsi. Back in January a bear called Juan Carrito was killed by a car. He was famous for having stolen biscuits from a local bakery. In fact, after his biscuit thieving he was captured and transported to a different part of Abruzzo but he made his way back. And then he was accidentally killed. Oddly enough it seems he was also a son of Amarena. Not a very lucky bear family, in my opinion. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!