Wilderness: the Marsican bear on the Ernici Mountains and the nearby Sibruini Mountains, not exactly positive news as some believe.
That the Marsican brown bear frequents the Ernici Mountains is decades old news, and that perhaps it settles there for certain periods of the year too. Now, that some individuals (we are talking about one, maybe two or three) have been reported again this year is nothing more than the confirmation of a fact. That these individuals have also moved to the neighboring Simbruini Mountains (even closer to Rome and even farther from the Abruzzo Park) is certainly a novelty. But that's not good news. Such as the reports of bears that in recent decades have been reported in Majella, Monte Velino, Monte Sirente, Gran Sasso and Laga, Monti Lucreteli near Rome, Monti Sibillini in the far north and Monti del Matese in the far south, these reports of Simbrunini - Ernici are simply proof of a malaise.
That malaise that has led the bears of the Abruzzo Park and its restricted districts to decrease in number from one hundred and more individuals in the early 70s of the last century to about 40 today. A defeat for the authorities who have had the task of managing the population of this extraordinary animal all this time. Despite this, although the exultation of the naturalists is understandable, who have rightly rejoiced for having sighted one or more bears, their success (the sighting and photography of the subjects) cannot be considered a success for the population, but proof of that aforementioned malaise.
First of all, because at least in the Ernici Mountains the sighting of the Marsican Bear or the discovery of the signs of its occasional presence is not new, having already occurred, and on several occasions, precisely, and coincidentally, with a progressive increase starting from from those infamous 70s that gave the first hammer blow to the compactness of the original population with the first signs of a decrease that for years has been stubbornly denied.
We must do everything to save these individuals, but above all we should make sure that they can return to their territory of origin, where the increase of the population would favor reproduction, do not hope that they remain in the Simbruini-Ernici to create a new population that would still remain. to the dependence (and in an annex!) of the original one. The fear is instead that perhaps everything will be done to clamor for the establishment in this territory of the umpteenth new useless Park and / or the closure of hunting, thus "poisoning" the hunters who could largely turn into poachers no longer controllable by the security services; Park or not Park.
The collaboration that ATC FR1 has made available to protect these bear individuals from the risk of their accidental killing during wild boar hunts must not turn into a penalty for the hunting world. If collaboration must be, let it be with fairness of relations and without laziness. There are other problems to be solved in order to save the Marsican Bear, in the Ernici but also in the entire outer belt of the Abruzzo Park and in the Park itself. The undersigned Association has been writing about it for years. But if you continue to want to turn those that are only negative signs into positive facts, you will not get anywhere. Meanwhile, the bears in the Ernici are not threatened by hunting, so stop seeing the hunter as your main enemy.
Those bears are simply there because they are looking for those things that they lacked in the Abruzzo Park and its external areas: peace and food. Favoring this possibility on the Ernici is a good thing, but on condition that it is also done in the Abruzzo Park. Otherwise we simply risk making the Hernica population increase at the expense of the Marsican population. If in order to enjoy every more bear on the Ernici-Simbruini we will be forced to count one bear less in the Marsica, then we will only enjoy a defeat!
Frank Zunino
AIW General Secretary
(December 27, 2012)