Hunters in Lithuania are outraged by the government’s handling of a stray bear in the capital, Vilnius. The government wanted to shoot the animal, but hunters point out that it is a critically endangered species.
The young brown bear attracted a lot of attention when she left the forests around Vilnius last weekend to explore the suburbs of the Lithuanian capital, reports news agency AP. She roamed through neighborhoods and along highways and regularly appeared in the backyards of residents of the capital.
It was the first time in a long time that a bear in Lithuania had come so close to human habitats. At one point, she was only 4 to 5 kilometers from the city center.
As a result, the government decided to grant a permit to shoot the animal. But that led to outrage from the Lithuanian Association of Hunters and Fishermen, which estimates that there are only about five to ten brown bears left in the Baltic state. The association therefore refused to comply with the government’s order.
The hunters wanted to track the bear’s location and lure her out of the city. In the meantime, the problem has resolved itself; on Wednesday the bear was spotted 60 kilometers outside Vilnius.
Government wanted to shoot bear ‘as a precaution’
The head of the hunters association tells AP that the bear is a “beautiful, young woman” of only two years old. “She was scared, but not aggressive,” he says. “She didn’t know how to leave the city, but she didn’t do anything wrong.”
In a response to the uproar, the Lithuanian Minister for the Environment says that the permit was granted “as a precaution” to prevent danger from arising.