Another death

How sad. The bear that had been roaming the Bavarian Alps has been shot dead. Nicknamed "Bruno", the bear was blamed for dead sheep and a raided beehive in the area. Believed to have originated from an Italian project to reintroduce bears in the Italian Alps, he is thought to have wandered across the border to Austria and then Germany, sparking lively interest from locals. This BBC report doesn't make clear, though, why the original plan to dart and relocate the bear was abandoned in favour of culling him.

Another poorly planned reintroduction? It's always difficult finding sympathy among farmers when livestock are threatened, but it does seem a great pity that Europe's last vestiges of wildlife can't be managed properly. Bruno's tale seems a lament on the wonderful wild landscapes of long ago Europe of which we can only dream today. God forbid our children should think in a similar vein of all the natural world someday.