Unimaginable as it might be to North Americans, bears in the western half of the Old Continent are so rare that their appearances sometimes become matters of state affairs, diplomatic wrangling, and dominate news headlines for weeks. And so it was with today's two protagonists: Bruno and Papillion
Bruno the Bavarian bear - When Bruno was first sighted in 2004 in the forests of southern Germany, he was the first bear to be recorded there since 1838. Although Bavarians (and Germans more broadly) were enthralled by the idea of reintroducing an endangered species, Bruno happened to be more than just an abstract idea (specifically, he was 200 kilograms of very real and hungry carnivore). Once his preference for chickens, sheep, and beehives could no longer be ignored, the rather unpopular* decision was taken to dispatch of him. However, having not seen a live bear in four generations, nobody in Bavaria was able to catch him and so a team of Finnish bear hunters and their pack of Karelian bear dogs were called in to assist. What the Finns apparently did not expect was that Bruno took advantage of the Schengen zone and simply evaded them by crossing multiple times between Austria and Bavaria. By this time, Bruno had made major headlines across Germany until the schadenfreude towards the Bavarians (and Finns) ended when his luck ultimately ran out and he was shot. However, that's not where the story ends. Now the Italian government declared Bruno to be state property of Italy and filed a note of formal protest in Brussels to demanded his return. Apparently, Bruno was part of an EU-funded €1 million conservation project and Rome argued that there had been "coordination" between Italy, Austria and Slovenia to ensure the bear's welfare (though Germany had apparently not been informed, likely to Bruno's immense frustration). All that came of course too late for our protagonist who can now be seen stuffed on display at the (aptly named) "Museum of Man and Nature" in Munich. (Link)
A pro-Bruno protest in Munich following Bruno's killing
Papillion, Europe's most wanted bear - Unlike Bruno, nobody disputes the Italian nationality of the bear now known as Papillion (of course named after the famous autobiography of a Frenchman who was unjustly convicted in 1931 of murder and who later escaped from a prison colony). While Bruno became famous for evading capture, Papillion has been described as an 'escape genius' (Guardian) and as "Europe's most wanted bear" (Newsbreak) having broken out multiple times from his high security enclosure. After being captured in 2019 and again in April 2020, in July 2020 he managed to climb over three electric fences and a four-metre high barrier before disappearing into the woods of northern Italy. WWF Italy publicly (and rather accurately) observed that “obviously the structure was not working" since "bears do not fly.” Code-named "M49" by the Italian authorities, in an alternative timeline, Papillion's stunts might have inspired Ian Fleming to make an Italian bear his protagonist rather than a Martini-drinking Englishman (or Scotsman, depending on your favourite Bond actor). In real life, however, the president of Trentino, ordered to shoot the bear citing risks to humans. However, last week, it was announced, M49 had been captured once more and brought back to his 9,000 square-meter high security enclosure and so evading the fate of his cousin Bruno. A story likely to be continued..
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*the governor of Bavaria, Edmund Stoiber, became quite famous when he held a press conference during which he gave an impromptu lecture on the difference between "Normalbären" (normal bears), "Problembären" (problem bears), and "Schadbären" (destructive bears). To this day, the term "problem bear" has been used by Germans to mildly insult perceived sub-par politicians (Link).
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