Hiker injured

New attacks by brown bears in Slovakia

In Slovakia, a hiker and a mushroom picker were attacked by brown bears. (symbolic image)(Bild: APA/dpa/A3502 Horst Ossinger)

Brown bears attacked a mushroom hunter and a hiker in Slovakia at the weekend. As the news agency TASR reported on Monday, citing the nature conservation organization SOPSR, 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. A bear had injured five people within the residential area there in mid-March. It was later tracked down and shot. 

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 on the legs.

After the incident, the couple fled to a nearby mountain hut and waited there for the arrival of the SOPSR's "Brown Bear Response Team".

Mushroom picker shot at bear
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 "brown 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 a warning to avoid the forest area.

Up to 1200 bears in Slovakia
According to official counts, there are around 1100 to 1200 bears living in the wild in Slovakia. Calls to reduce their numbers through targeted shooting have recently become louder.