2024-07-11 17:20:29
There are more brown bears on the move in Bavaria again. This is a concern for a local politician – and now she is calling for a kind of bear police.
The Oberallgäu district administrator Indra Baier-Müller (Free Voters) is calling for the establishment of an armed Bavarian brown bear unit. The unit should be responsible for scaring away and killing bears and be ready for action at any time, the district administrator suggested in a letter to Environment Minister Thorsten Glauber (also Free Voters).
Baier-Müller founded the Brown Bear Initiative a year ago to connect those responsible in the Alpine regions of Bavaria. In the spring of last year, a whole series of bear sightings were reported in southern Bavaria.
The animals probably migrate from northern Italy via Austria and sometimes into the Free State. In the Italian province of Trentino, there are now around 100 brown bears again following a re-settlement project.
A few weeks ago, representatives from the districts of Ostallgäu, Traunstein and Rosenheim met in Sonthofen at the invitation of Baier-Müller. The local politicians called for a legal change to the protection status of brown bears.
The local authorities should be able to react more quickly in the event of an influx of bears and, if necessary, have potentially dangerous animals shot. Baier-Müller stressed at the meeting that this was not about shy bears that were shy and kept away from people.
Baier-Müller now suggested that the Bavarian brown bear management plan from 2007 should be urgently revised. The year before, Bruno the bear was shot in Bavaria. The authorities classified this animal as a so-called problem bear that poses a danger to the population.
The district administrator also called for support in informing the population and holidaymakers. She suggested lectures, brochures and educational films for tourists.
It would also have to be clarified how bear-safe waste disposal could be introduced and financed in the affected regions. In other bear regions, such as Canada, garbage cans have been in place for decades that are specially locked so that bears are not lured into populated areas in search of food.