Bear accused of mauling jogger to death ‘is innocent’, campaigners insist

Activists are calling for a bear accused of killing a jogger in Italy to be freed, claiming it’s the wrong gender.

Andrea Papi was mauled to death in the mountainous far north of the country on 5 April and authorities swiftly captured JJ4, a 17-year-old female bear that has previously shown signs of aggression towards humans.

Maurizio Fugatti, president of the Trentino province, has called for JJ4 to be put down, and a hearing on 11 May will decide the bear’s fate.

Marches and protests have been held to demand the freedom of JJ4. She has now been separated from her cubs and Leal, an environmental group, has said that tests show that teeth marks on Mr Papi’s body were not consistent with a female bear.

Leal wrote: “Female bears have smaller measurements compared to males, both in their body mass and their dental structure… JJ4 is innocent.”

The bear has been under suspicion since she attacked two hikers in 2020 and after that incident, she was fitted with a tracking device although this since run out of battery.

Mr Fugatti said the bear would have been “shot during its capture” had it not been for an order from an administrative court. Leal has called for his resignation.

A vet report, according to the Guardian, looked at Mr Papi’s injuries and found this was “a protracted attempt by the bear to distance and dissuade the victim” and not “a deliberate or predatory attack”.

A man was attacked by another bear in the same province in March, the newspaper added, and interactions with humans are on the rise with the animal population growing after bears were reinstated in the 2000s. This was the first fatal bear attack in Italy in living memory.

Nevertheless, Mr Fugatti said in a Facebook post on May 5 that he had been in a meeting to discuss the “serious problem” of big predators such as bears and wolves.

“The situation in Bolzano and Trento is no longer sustainable, a solution must be found,” he wrote - the post having been translated from Italian to English.

“We have noticed a sensitivity on the topic so much that a discussion opened up during the council of ministers. Here we have repeatedly emphasised how, to solve the problem, it is necessary to carry out legislative initiatives not only in Italy, but also in Europe, because the problem is not only about Trentino.”

Mr Fugatti’s office could not be reached for comment.