Was she a threat? They killed the troubled bear under the Tatras, leaving the young – Nový Čas

On Friday morning, the intervention team for the brown bear of the State State Nature Protection (ŠOP) of the Slovak Republic killed a problem bear in the locality of Pribylina – Hrdovo in the district of Liptovský Mikuláš. The bear with two young showed signs of aggressive behavior and moved around the tourist-famous cottage areas of Pribylina and Podbanská in the High Tatras. TASR was informed about this by the spokesperson of ŠOP SR Kristína Bocková. The bear was looking for easily accessible food near people. According to Bock’s behavior, the intervention team of ŠOP SR evaluated the behavior of the five-year-old bear in question as dangerous and posing a threat to local residents, cottagers and visitors. She also moved with her young near tourist attractions – Hrdovo, Kokavský most and Pod surovým hrádkom, where she looked for waste. The ŠOP SR intervention team recorded repeated reports of its occurrence at the site, as well as complaints and damages caused. “If this individual were not excluded from the population, there would be a risk of further damage to the property of local residents and the risk that searching for food in the city will cause harm to human health,” said the director of the Tatra National Park Administration Pavol Majko. According to Bocková, the placement of a problem bear in a breeding facility was not possible in this case, as it was an individual accustomed to free life in nature and its adaptation to artificially created conditions in captivity would not be possible. The bears will be monitored by the intervention team for the time being, followed by an evaluation of their behavior.