Slovakia sees renewed brown bear attacks
Brown bears attacked a mushroom forager and a hiker in Slovakia at the weekend, news agency TASR reported on Monday.
Citing the State Office for Nature Conservation (SOPSR), the agency reported that the hiker had to be treated as an outpatient in hospital.
Both incidents occurred in the Liptov region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains.
In the same region, a bear injured five people within the residential area of a small town in mid-March. It was tracked down and shot more than a week later.
The hiker had been walking with his wife and dog on a hiking trail near the village of Pribylina late on Sunday afternoon when the bear attacked unexpectedly and injured the man's legs. After the incident, the couple fled to a nearby mountain hut and waited for the bear task force of the SOPSR.
The mushroom picker came across a bear in the dense undergrowth in a mountain forest above the village of Stranavy on Saturday, which then attacked him. The man shot the animal with a pistol and injured it. He himself remained unharmed.
The bear task force, which was also alerted in this case, feared that the bear that had been shot could be dangerous to other people. The team therefore searched the forest area together with hunters.
The bear also attacked one of the hunters. When the hunter also fired a shot, the animal fled into the dense forest, where its tracks were lost. The authorities issued an appeal to avoid the forest area.
According to official counts, there are around 1,100 to 1,200 bears living in the wild in Slovakia. Calls to reduce their numbers through targeted shooting have recently become louder.
