Bear Lands

No. 17 / December 2023

A difficult year for our bears has just passed. In dutifully taking stock of our association’s activities, we cannot help but be reminded of the concerns we expressed just a year ago about Juan Carrito, Amarena’s son, on whom we had focused an exceptional effort, for a small association like ours, investing money and dozens of hours of work to guarantee his safety and keep him, as far as possible, out of trouble. Not even three weeks had passed since the publication of those reflections that Carrito died run over, as we unfortunately feared, right along Highway 17, where with WWF and Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park we had helped build a first section of fence that was supposed to make it safer for humans and animals. In late August, Amarena, her mother, was being shot to death as she, accompanied by her two pups hatched in a den in January, roamed around a chicken coop in San Benedetto dei Marsi, a town just outside the park. Much has been said and written about these two episodes, and more you will find about them in this year-end issue of ours. I just want to make two simple notes.

(Continue reading in No. 17)