M13: (sad) story of a bear.

M13 was a brown bear living in the mountains of Trentino. 

He was broken down on February 2013 by Swiss authorities of Cantone Grigioni as he was thought to be a threat for men. 

The bear used to live in the Italian territory, in Trentino, but unfortunately he didn't know the state borders...

In 2012 his brother, called M12, died in a car crash in Bolzano area. 

At the beginning of winter M13 had been captured by the forest rangers, who examined and measured him and then equipped him with a radio collar to monitor his movements. 

Sadly, during the hibernation the collar came off and when M13 awoke he headed towards Switzerland searching for food. 

He was betrayed by a winter made too short by global warming. As he woke up too early, hunger drove him close to population centers. His lack of fear of humans and the obtuseness of Swiss local governments did the rest...

Brown Bear: the situation in the Italian Alps.

In the Italian Alps, there are only 35 brown bears left. 
Reduced to the brink of extinction, the Brown Bear had almost disappeared at the beginning of the last century from the alpine zone, because of poaching and poisonings. 

Today bears are returning but in the Alps people are no more accustomed to their presence and they have lost the precautions for peaceful coexistence. 
Garbage cans, hives and hen houses are devoid of protections and it is clear that they are irresistible temptations for bears. 

Bears are increasingly forced into a fragmented, anthropized habitat and this inevitably leads them more and more in contact with men. 
Damage caused by these animals provokes strong resentment in the local population and this can be eliminated only by an adequate forest policy and by a greater ecological awareness.