A day of bear watching in the forests not far from the Italian border. A little over an hour’s drive from Trieste live 1,200 bears
An hour and a quarter by car from Trieste, there is the bear. Not a zoo; Slovenia. After the border, a beautiful but cemented country ends (ours) and a wild country begins, 60 percent covered by forests, where one of the largest bear communities in Europe lives. At least 1,200 bears, which grow by 65 each year. Some are sent to France and Spain to repopulate the Pyrenees. Unfortunately 40 are shot down by hunters. From Germany and Russia they can be booked months in advance, willing to pay 10 thousand euros or more per prey. Tito himself – a Croatian father and a Slovenian mother – was a famous hunter. Italian tourists, on the other hand, come not to kill the bears, but to see them. Bear watching.
Near the Postojna caves
On the way there is Postojna, with the most beautiful caves in the world. Between the first and second world wars, this was Italy. Concerts were held in the caves, Mascagni came to direct the Cavalleria Rusticana. The guide bears the same name as his grandfather, father and son: Franc Dekleva. Four generations of the same family, each Franc born in the same house, at the same address, but in a different country: grandfather Franc in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, father Franc in Italy, our Franc in Yugoslavia, his son Franc in Slovenia.
Among the bears
Then the road continues to the village of Juršce, which would be St. George. The guide here is called Jieronim, Geronimo, and he doesn’t know a word of any Western language. Interpreter Stefan, the agency’s driver, who speaks English well (the owner, Andrej Vatovec, also speaks Italian). Geronimo will be seventy years old, has spent his life among bears, and carries the rifle over his shoulder because, he explains, you never know with them. A child asks if the bear is bad. Geronimo gets a little dry. It is against the humanization of animals. The bear is neither good nor bad; it’s a bear. Millions of years of predation have taught him (like all animals) to avoid humans. It attacks only when it feels in danger, or to defend the offspring, to which it is very attached. Last week for example a runner, in short, one who ran in the Slovenian mountains, unwittingly stood between a bear and its teddy bears (Dante would have written “orsatti”). The bear got very angry and tried to tear the intruder to pieces. But if a bear attacks you, how do you react?
The risks
Geronimo raises the rifle: if a bear attacks you, shoot. But what if you don’t have a rifle? In that case there are two tactics. The best known: pretend to be dead, do not look him in the eye, appear harmless. Alternatively: make a hellish noise, hoping to scare the mother bear. The runner has chosen, perhaps instinctively, the second solution. It went well: scratches, wounds, hospitalization; but nothing dramatic. We will not take any risks. Geronimo deposits us in the jeep next to the sighting house. You go up a ladder, sit on a bench, open the window (everyone has their own, maximum four people), and wait. The bear will come sooner or later. Obviously, no one knows when.
The watch house: silence for two hours
This is the real challenge: to stay at least two hours in absolute silence. “Tiho!” Geronimo recommended himself; shut up! In fact, the bear sees little, but has a very fine hearing: a whisper is enough to induce him to flee, indeed not to come at all. The cell phone does not take. Carrying a book is useless: every five seconds your instinct prompts you to look up, to see if the bear has arrived.
After sunset
Pass, in order: two foxes, with a beautiful tail; a deer; a flock of sheep, escorted by four shepherd dogs, a minimum number to discourage a bear in crisis of hunger. Then, after sunset, in the light of twilight (in the summer day it is too hot, while at night it is very active), here is finally the bear. Huge. The head of the family in fact always goes first. He pushes aside the plank that protects a small well, and begins to eat the meat that Geronimo has hidden in there. The bear is not fed directly: it would become too lazy, and would risk associating the idea of food with that of man. He has to make a little effort; in this case, pluck the wood that hides the view of the meal. Then the bear stands up on its paws, much to the delight of photography enthusiasts, and shakes a trabiccolo where the dried fruit is hidden. Then it disappears.
Coexistence
After half an hour the bear arrives. Smaller. A scar behind an ear. But the bear does not trust. He heard an unnatural noise: the click of the camera. So don’t eat. It comes and goes. She wanders around nervously. Then disappear back into the forest. Last comes the son. Not a puppy; a bear that looks like a teenager. Unfortunately, however, Geronimo also arrives with the jeep, putting him on the run. It is now dark: time to get out of the hut, before you no longer see anything, exposing yourself to any ambushes. Geronimo shows us the traps with which his ancestors kept predators at bay; but now, at least here, man and bear have learned to live together.
August 21, 2021 (change August 21, 2021 | 21:36)
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