14 DAY TRIAL // Only recently, a brown bear closely monitored by the World Wildlife Fund was shot dead by poachers in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains, causing said organization to worry about how large carnivores are being treated in these parts of the world.
Apparently, the World Wildlife Fund has plans to implement a project aimed at safeguarding the brown bear population both in Romania and in Ukraine, and this specimen had been fitted with a collar precisely so that it could provide information concerning the behavioral patterns of this species.
More precisely, the World Wildlife Fund wanted to know where these animals typically go to feed, what they do when they need to shelter themselves and how they find suitable mates.
Unfortunately, the aforementioned brown bear, which was only 6-8 years old, got shot by poachers soon after conservationists first began monitoring it, meaning that hardly any information ended up being made available to this green-oriented organization.
The official website for the World Wildlife Fund also informs us that, although the people in charge of looking after the forest area where the dead bear was found were notified immediately about this incident, they failed in raising awareness and urging the police to take appropriate measures as soon as possible.
“An event like this should send huge warning signals not only to the authorities responsible for the management of brown bear populations in our country, but also to the European Commission, given the significance of this species for Europe’s natural diversity,” argued Cristian-Remus Papp, presently working with the World Wide Fund on this conservation project.
As he puts it, “This bear fell victim to the bad system for management of large carnivores in Romania.”
Given the fact that the Carpathian Mountains are presently home to some of the greatest mammals still inhabiting the European continent, it is to be expected that a thorough investigation on this matter will soon be carried out.