The Swiss Like ‘Em Better In A Zoo: Second to Last Wild Bear in The Country Gets Shot

The Europeans seem to prefer them this way; this bear resides in the zoo in Stockholm. The species this creature belongs to, however, once roamed wild from Ireland to Japan, and from Scandinavia to Africa. The brown bear, as they’re called, is of course scarce is Western Europe now. And a bear that was recently released in Switzerland, where he was one of only two in the country, has come to grief, as MSNBC reports:

Sharpshooters killed one of two wild bears in Switzerland after officials determined it had lost its fear of humans and posed a risk, authorities said Tuesday.

Environmental organizations expressed dismay, but government officials said they had no choice. The 2-year-old brown bear was the younger brother of an animal that met the same fate in Germany’s Bavaria in 2006. Both were part of a project to reintroduce bears to areas of Europe where they had been extinct.

“JJ3 was getting bolder and bolder, and even let people observe him,” said Stefan Engler, president of the canton of Graubuenden. “We saw no other way to influence the behavior of the bear.”

Most people who live in bear country in North America would have to regard this as pretty feeble stuff. Some bears are like this. You have the odd moment of visceral terror, but you live with it.

Still, it’s a miracle that overcivilized Europe has bears at all. Remnant populations of brown bears exist in the mountains in Spain and Italy, and there are a fair number in Eastern Europe, in places like Romania, where former dictator Nicolai Ceausescu liked to shoot them. He is himself well-ventilated now, so maybe the bears pass more peaceful days. Their mere existence is cause for hope.

Link [MSNBC]

Photo: Flickr user M. Prinke.

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