The Brown Bear Intervention Team of the State Nature Conservancy of the SR (SNC SR Intervention Team) killed a problem brown bear near the municipality of Kľačno, in the Prievidza district, in the night hours on Monday. The bear’s behaviour and frequent visits to the municipality and the surrounding areas posed a danger to the safety of the local inhabitants and caused damage to their property.

The SNC SR Intervention Team had been monitoring the movement and behaviour of this bear specimen, which was causing damage to livestock in the local farm. The approximately 6-year-old female, weighing up to 100 kg, was spotted moving close to human dwellings. The data collected by the SNC SR Intervention Team indicate that the bear was progressively losing its shyness and did not respond to hazing.

Scaring away a problem brown bear specimen is one form of aversion therapy, which aims to re-induce shyness in individual bears through a negative stimulus. However, all methods used in this case proved ineffective. After monitoring, the bear’s behaviour was assessed as demonstrably dangerous and posing a threat to the health and life of local residents and visitors.

Placing the problem bear specimen in a nursery was not an option in this case, as it was a specimen accustomed to living free in the wild and its adaptation to artificially created conditions in captivity would not have been possible.

The female bear was removed from the bear population in cooperation with the Police Force of the Slovak Republic, namely the Nitrianske Pravno District Police Department, in Piner, a place located in Kľačno cadastre area. The bear’s body, together with relevant documentation, was handed over to the local Horná Nitra hunting association. The areas around the municipality of Kľačno are intensively monitored due to the repeated occurrence of brown bears, and the SNC SR Intervention Team is taking all necessary measures to ensure the safety of local residents.

Additional information:

Pursuant to Section 65a (5) of Act No. 543/2002 Coll. on Nature and Landscape Protection, as subsequently amended, the SNC SR is authorised to ensure the hazing, catching or killing of protected animals whose behaviour outside their natural habitat poses an immediate threat to the health or safety of the inhabitants of municipalities. The killing of a specific problem bear specimens prevents the occurrence of dangerous human-bear encounters in which there is a demonstrable risk of endangering human health and life.

Nationwide, the SNC SR Brown Bear Intervention Team cares for the population of the protected species of brown bear (Ursus arctos), which includes the elimination of specific (identified) problem specimens from the population by means of euthanasia.

For more information about the activities of the SNC SR Intervention Team, go to https://zasahovytim.sopsr.sk/

This press release was prepared by the Department of Communication and Promotion of the State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic.