A motorcyclist was mutilated until death by a bear on a road in the Mountains of the Cárpatos in Romania on Thursday, emergency service officials said, the last attack in the country with the largest population of brown bears of the European Union.
Romania has a population of brown bears from 10,000 to 13,000, the preliminary results of a several -year DNA study showed this year, and the authorities are struggling to keep residents and tourists safe in mountain cities.
Police and emergency services said in a joint statement that tourists had alerted them about Thursday attack against Transfagarasan Road in Arges central county. The bear had dragged the motorcyclist for a ravine, they said.
There were no details about the identity of the motorcyclist.
Almost 30 people have been killed by bears in Romania in the last two decades, said the Ministry of Environment. Bear sightings are common and local media regularly report bears attacks against people and cattle.
Last year, the Romania Parliament doubled the annual share of Bear Kill to 481 Bear Kills per year to control the size of the population of bears and eliminate animals that have become accustomed to entering the cities in search of food.
Wild life experts have said that bears attacks have increased due to human behavior such as the reduction of animal habitats due to construction, felling and climate change.
Many bears are also attracted to garbage landfills on the outskirts of cities and discarded food. The authorities have not done enough to intensify prevention measures, including electric fences and the best garbage management, wildlife experts said.
