Tracked down with a drone

Slovakia: Bear injured five people – shot dead

A brown bear that injured five people in a small Slovakian town has been tracked down and shot more than a week later. As Environment Minister Tomas Taraba announced on Facebook on Wednesday, the animal was killed on Tuesday evening. Drones were also used to find the bear and identify it beyond doubt, as the news agency TASR reported.

In addition, the "Brown Bear Response Team", which belongs to the state nature conservation organization SOPSR, had set up a network of surveillance cameras to search for the animal.

Patrols from the team, the police and hunters combed the area around the town of Liptovsky Mikulas (old German name: Sankt Nikolaus in der Liptau).

Several passers-by injured
The bear had wandered through the town on March 17 and injured passers-by. Cell phone videos showed the startled animal running through the streets between cars, stressed and apparently looking for an escape route. It jumped at adults and children who were unable to get out of the way in time.

The victims, aged between ten and 72, suffered bites and scratches, and one of them almost lost an eye, it was reported at the time. Nevertheless, the five injured people were able to return home after a short time in hospital.

Hunters call for more bear culls
The incident had intensified earlier calls from sections of the population and the hunting community for the bear population to be regulated by culling. According to studies by SOPSR in collaboration with scientists from Charles University in Prague, there are around 1100 to 1200 bears living in the wild in Slovakia.

Normally, the animals avoid people if they notice them in time. However, they can also attack in the event of a surprise encounter or if female bears believe their cubs are threatened.