Hunters see red after first mauling by bear

BRATISLAVA: A bear has killed a 57-year-old Slovak man, officials said yesterday, in an attack that sparked irate reactions from Slovak hunters claiming that Slovakia has too many bears.

The man was found mauled to death, surrounded by fresh bear prints on Monday in Bansko Valley, 250km from the capital, Bratislava.

Imrich Suba, director-general of the Slovak Hunting Chamber, said the incident was due to “an unsystematic, populist approach” to conservation. Bear hunting is banned in Slovakia.

Suba said that in the 1920s there were only 30 bears in Slovakia but that the population of brown bears had grown to more than 2700. |