Italian politicians and wildlife experts have condemned the fatal shooting of an endangered brown bear, as a search was under way for her two cubs.
Amarena was one of the most popular of the Marsican brown bears in the Abruzzo national park in central Italy, often pictured in and around the area with her offspring.
A local man was immediately identified as the shooter, according to park authorities, which condemned the “very serious incident”.
The 56-year-old reportedly told police he fired out of fear when Amarena entered his property on the outskirts of the town of San Benedetto dei Marsi, outside the park area, on Friday.
Amarena was one of only about 60 such bears in the park and one its most prolific females. The marsican brown bear, endemic to central Italy, is considered at an elevated risk of extinction.
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The park authorities said there was “no reason to justify” the shooting, even if Amarena had previously caused damage including to agriculture nearby, as “she never created any problems for humans”.
Marco Marsilio, the president of the Abruzzo region, repeated that the bear was no danger and condemned the “incomprehensible” shooting.
Italy’s environment minister, Gilberto Pichetto, and animal rights advocates voiced anger and dismay. Pichetto said protection of the cubs was a priority, and that his department was “doing everything possible so that they can remain free”.
Prosecutors were looking into a possible charge of animal killing, and police took the rifle, which was legally owned by man, as part of their investigation, the LaPresse news agency said.
The fate of Amarena’s cubs was unknown and drones were being used in a search for them, LaPresse said. The cubs were not yet self-sufficient and thus were at high risk, environmental campaign group WWF Italia said.
The Marsican bear is a subspecies of brown bear that only lives in the central Apennine mountains.
Local residents, including families with small children, had often stopped to watch Amarena – or Black Cherry in Italian – and her cubs during the animal family’s frequent evening excursions through streets near the park. Residents coined the bear’s name because cherries and black cherries were among her favourite foods, the Corriere della Sera newspaper said.
The death of Amarena – one of a limited number of adult females – “represents a serious blow to the bear’s hopes of survival”, WWF Italia said. It would seek to bring a civil action against the shooter.
The theme of bear v humans has taken on political connotations in Italy and landed in the courts. Earlier this year, an administrative court’s ruling spared, for now, the life of a brown bear that fatally attacked a runner on a mountain trail in Italy’s Alpine region.
Local political authorities had issued an order to have the 17-year-old female bear, known as Jj4, euthanised. A court hearing on the bear’s fate is expected in December. Animal rights groups have challenged the order to put down the bear.
Italian state TV said on Friday that Amarena was the mother of another one of the park’s bears that met a violent end. That bear, which was fatally struck by a car earlier this year, earned national fame when it broke into a bakery and ate cookies.
With Agence France-Presse and Associated Press