Possible sighting
On the morning of September 8, the Brunico Forestry Inspectorate and the Provincial Office for Wildlife Management received a report of a possible sighting of a bear cub near the Sass Dlacia campsite in San Cassiano/San Ćiascian, in the municipality of Badia. A member of the Provincial Forestry Corps immediately went to the site to verify the report. Shortly thereafter, the Provincial Forestry Corps also received videos of the animal, which immediately ruled out any alarm: it was clearly a black cat climbing a tree, reports Dominik Trenkwalder, Director of the Provincial Office for Wildlife Management. On-site inspections by the Provincial Forestry Corps also revealed no tracks or other evidence suggesting a bear. Therefore, any risk was quickly ruled out.
The tests
Currently, the Wildlife Management Office has no information or reports indicating the presence of bears in the eastern part of the province. "As an authority, we thank you for the timely report. We naturally take every indication seriously and will investigate it as quickly as possible. However, we also appeal to the public not to overreact to reports and not to cause unnecessary alarm," emphasizes Forestry Service Department Director Günther Unterthiner.
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Direct sightings
So far this year, 12 direct bear sightings have been recorded in the areas of Prato allo Stelvio, along the Mendola mountain chain, and in the Alta Val di Non. The Val Badia area was only home to a single bear in 2009; it was the male M5. Furthermore, since the Life Ursus project began in 2001, only two female bears have been recorded in South Tyrol. The results of the genetic analyses are still being processed, and therefore it is not yet possible to estimate the total number of bears recorded in South Tyrol to date. In 2025, a total of eight bears were recorded in South Tyrol, including one female. The most recent confirmed sightings of large predators and the report on the situation of large predators in South Tyrol are available on the website of the Provincial Office for Wildlife Management (source: Province of Bolzano).
