The notorious brown bear known as M13 has been killed. He was shot in the early hours of Tuesday, after it proved impossible to keep him away from human settlements, the Federal Office for the Environment announced on Wednesday.
“Both in the autumn and now after waking from his winter sleep, the bear kept looking for food in villages, had followed people in broad daylight and – despite repeated measures to scare him off – showed absolutely no fear of humans,” said a statement from the office.
“He was classified as a risk to human safety. Under Switzerland’s ‘bear plan’ it became inevitable that he would be shot.”
M13 apparently woke up from his winter sleep about ten days ago. At the weekend he followed two hikers into a village in Val Poschiavo in the south eastern canton of Graubünden, then walked along the village street to the main road. A driver told the German-language tabloid Blick that if he hadn’t braked he would have run the animal over.
“When the bear stood in front of our car he bared his teeth and growled,” he said.
The bear had been fitted with a transmitter in October 2011, which he lost when hit by a train in spring 2012. Another transmitter was fitted in June 2012, and he had been kept under close watch.
In the past, the three-year old bear had roamed between Switzerland, Italy and Austria, but had been seen frequently in Val Poschiavo towards the end of 2012.
Last October he had entered several residential areas, and in November even broke into a holiday home and eaten food stored there. His behaviour led the environment office to classify him as a “problem bear”.
The killing of M13 was not a surprise. The local online newspaper for the Poschiavo region, Il Grigione Italiano, reporting on his escapades at the weekend, headed its article: ‘Are we just waiting for a tragedy?’ and called for the bear to be shot.
The Graubünden cantonal hunting office had said on Monday that discussions were underway between the canton and the federal authorities about the bear’s behaviour and confirmed to swissinfo.ch that M13 had definitely been a problem bear for the office.
However, the local council in Poschiavo had merely called for the bear to be removed to a less populated region, such as one of the neighbouring national parks, the website of Romansch radio and television reported on Tuesday.
The WWF issued a statement saying that it was “deeply disappointed” by the fact that the bear had been killed.
“It is clear that the shooting came too soon – it would have been much better to have stepped up and continued with the deterrent measures,” said Joanna Schönenberger, bear expert at the nature protection organisation.
Initial feedback on Swiss newspaper websites was overwhelmingly hostile to the shooting.