The mountain village of Caldes, surrounded by forests beneath the rugged peaks of the Alps, has been officially recognised as one of the most beautiful places in Italy.
But today, many villagers are afraid to venture into these forests. One elderly woman told me that she had given up hiking and nature photography. Her neighbour pointed out the trails she no longer walks on every weekend.
Giuseppe Rizzi, 72, the president of the municipal council, has stopped walking his dog to visit his orchard in the woods. And his wife, Alba, does not feel safe going out at night. “I don’t remember ever being so scared when I was a child,” she says.
The reason these villagers – many of them from generations of rugged mountain people who lived as hunters and herders – are so afraid is simple: One local man, while out jogging last year, was mauled to death by a female bear.
The attack on Andrea Papi, 26, while jogging in the Dolomites shocked Italy and sparked a national debate over the advisability of a policy of reintroducing brown bears here.
There is an Italian policy to reintroduce brown bears in the Dolomites
Andrea Papi, 26 (right), was mauled to death by a bear in Italy and tried to defend himself with a broken branch, investigators believe. His girlfriend Alessia Gregori (left) reported him missing
The standoff pitted politicians against animal rights activists, conservationists against local people. Meanwhile, the bear, though saved from being euthanized by the country’s highest court, is now trapped in captivity, with wildlife experts complaining about the cruelty of her “jail” sentence.
The controversy was recently reignited after another bear was killed on the orders of the region’s governor following an attack on a French tourist. In a surprise twist, the victim, Vivien Triffaux, 43, said she was “really saddened” by her role in the death of a mother protecting her cubs, adding: “I am truly hurt that our encounter cost her her life.”
The saga over how to handle aggressive bears after the success of a rewilding project in the Italian Alps comes at a time when hundreds of other brown bears across Europe, from Sweden to Romania, are being culled.
“We have lost all direction on this issue,” says conservationist Francesco Romito. “We need to conserve the bears for the future, but also understand the fears of the local community.”
The bear now in captivity, responsible for Italy’s first fatal attack in 150 years, has been named JJ4, the fourth child of Joze and Jurka, two bears captured in Slovenia and released with eight others in a national park near Trento more than two decades ago.
Their translocation was part of a project called Life Ursus, which began after bears in this region were brought to the brink of extinction.
The EU-backed plan to bring predators back to the top of the food chain was hailed as a success: at least 120 bears now live in the region. Inevitably, there have been close encounters with people.
After a bear attacked French tourist Vivien Triffaux (pictured), the governor of the region ordered it to be killed.
The bear, JJ4, was tranquilized (pictured) and is now in captivity, having been pardoned by the country’s highest court. JJ4 was responsible for the first fatal attack in Italy in 150 years
Eurasian brown bears are large animals. They can be taller than a human, weigh up to 360 kg and can reach speeds of 56 km/h. Males can travel great distances. Although they are usually shy around people and are largely nocturnal, they can react aggressively when frightened, especially mothers with cubs.
After JJ4 killed Andrea Papi, it emerged that the bear had been involved in an attack four years earlier, attacking a man who was walking with his father. There have been at least six other attacks in the past decade with serious injuries.
Signs demanding “Justice for Andrea” can be seen on many houses in Caldes. Her father, Carlo, told me that people are angry about the nature recovery plan and the lack of information to residents about the attacks.
“I’m filled with anger,” said the retired head waiter. “The authorities knew there was a dangerous bear out there, but they didn’t warn anyone.
“We’ve been waiting for justice, but it seems like it will never come. We want accountability, for someone to go to jail. The decision to reintroduce the bears has been a disaster.”
Local residents in Caldes told me that they had seen a bear walking through a children’s playground the night before. A few days earlier, one woman said, a bear had badly damaged a car by climbing on it to pick fruit from a tree. Alberto Perli, mayor of Andalo, a popular tourist town, said that even fixing rubbish bins to concrete had not prevented the powerful animals from knocking them over to rummage for food. Now the authorities are building underground bins.
Eurasian brown bears are large animals. They can be taller than a human, weigh up to 360 kg and run at 56 km/h, with males covering great distances.
Surveys by Trentino’s wildlife department found that the reintroduction project had good support when it began, but now 70 percent of locals dislike the growing bear population.
Franca Ghirardini, 61, the mother of the fatally maimed runner, complained that locals had never been consulted about the reintroduction of wildlife.
However, such has been the furore following her son’s death that she and her husband have suffered a repulsive barrage of hate messages and abuse on social media, leading to 21 police complaints.
Some regional government employees have also quit their jobs due to the hostility sparked among animal lovers by the original decision to shoot JJ4.
The bear’s life was saved, along with another beast that attacked a hiker, after activists appealed to Italy’s highest court and judges ruled that euthanizing it would be a “disproportionate” punishment.
Claudio Groff, director of Trento’s Large Carnivore Division, said JJ4 will likely be deported to Germany later this year. “Coexisting with bears means eliminating those that pose a danger to humans,” he said.
Marina Chini, from the Collettivo Scobi, an animal rights activist who opposed the removal of JJ4, says the risk of being attacked by a bear is negligible compared to other dangers in the mountains. “Many, many more people are killed by cars,” she says.
Although typically shy around people and largely nocturnal, brown bears can react aggressively when frightened, especially mothers with cubs.
Alessandro de Guelmi, a retired veterinarian who trapped 18 bears for research and public safety while overseeing captures in Trentino between 2014 and 2019, said a “fantastic” plan had been ruined after politicians took over. “I’ve never had a problem because bears are intelligent. If you know what you’re doing, they won’t hurt you,” he said.
He explained that screaming is a normal reaction when faced with a bear, “but this scares him.” He told me that he once came across a sleeping bear. “I gently pulled his cheek, like a cat or a child, and he opened his eyes. I thought he was going crazy, but as soon as he opened his eyes I knew he was okay. It was the most beautiful moment of my life. I felt him smiling at me.”
However, he believes it is better to kill wild animals than to keep them behind bars. “Captivity is the most horrible thing you can do to a bear – they must be free or dead.”