These days serious episodes of bears, especially females with cubs, chased day and night by “photographic trophy hunters” on foot or by car are occurring. These activities represent a real threat to the survival of bears. The reasons are not difficult to imagine even for many of these people if they stop to consider the potential impact, using reason to tame our own selfishness, egocentrism, greed and lust for conquest, which too often exceed the understandable curiosity we have in the presence of such unique and charismatic animals.
Chasing and terrorizing the bears can lead to daring runs along alleys and streets, with confused and stressed animals crossing into traffic accidents with oncoming vehicles, accidentally running over pedestrians or purposely attacking them to open an escape route when they feel threatened. Would we blame the bear if accidents to people were triggered by human misbehaviour?
These pursuits can lead to the separation of the females and their young with dramatic results, including the death of the cubs detached from their mother. The Pescasseroli’s episode in 2019 should have taught us something.
https://www.salviamolorso.it/en/a-cub-of-sebastiana-the-bear-is-still-missing/
The mortality of Marsican bear cubs is very high, estimated at around 50% already due to natural causes. Do we also want to be a further threat by disturbing them? If we consider that some females approach human settlements precisely to drive away, with the presence of our species, male bears who could kill offspring that are not descended from them and then mate with the mother, do we really want to betray this trust by becoming a worse danger than the one from which these families flee?
Furthermore, the constant presence of people around the bears at not at a respectable distance can condition these animals, leading them to dangerous behaviours, pushing them more and more inside the towns in search of easy food (waste, fruit, livestock) and increasing the probability of falling victim to road accidents, such as the deaths of the bears Liberata and Juan Carrito so starkly demonstrated, contradicting those who thought they were doing bears a favour by “feeding him”.
The mayors of Villalago and Roccaraso did well in issuing ordinances for the protection of bears, but now it is necessary for the authorities to enforce them through heavy sanctions when the rules and the ethics to not disturb the animals fail.
We renew the invitation to local authorities dealing with bears to contact us to ask for the support of our volunteers. We will do our best to help you!
Since sharing video of chases often produces more imitation than disapproval among the vast and sometimes careless, even reckless, internet audience, here we post just a frame from the latest video of a female bear and her single cub being chased after she had already lost two cubs, probably to natural causes.