A motorcyclist was destroyed to death on a street in the Carpathian Mountains on Thursday, according to emergency officials. This was the most recent attack in the country with the largest population of brown bears in the European Union.
Romania has a brown bear population of 10,000 to 13,000, as the preliminary results of a many years of DNA study this year showed. That is why the authorities are struggling to keep residents and tourists in mountain cities safe.
Police and emergency services said in a joint statement that their tourists had notified Thursday’s attack on the Transfagarasan road in Central County Arges. The bear had dragged the motorcyclist into a ravine, they said.
There were no details on the identity of the motorcyclist.
What about bears in Romania?
Nearly 30 people have been killed by bears in Romania for the last two decades, according to the Ministry of the Environment. Bear views are common and local media reports regular animal attacks on humans and other animals.
Last year, the Romanian parliament doubled the annual quota of bears to 481 deaths a year in order to control the size of their population, but also to remove animals that are accustomed to entering cities in search of food.
Wildlife experts have said that bears attacks have increased due to human behavior, such as shrinking animal habitats due to construction, logging and climate change.
Many bears are also attracted to dump trash on the outskirts of cities and by thrown foods. Officials have not done enough to intensify preventive measures, including electric fractures and better rubbish management, experts said.
Source: Reuters
