Bears Have Killed Nearly 30 People in Romania Over 20 Years, and Tourists Are Still Hand-Feeding Them for Photos
On one Romanian mountain road, 20 brown bears came out of the forest in a single morning to beg from cars. Drivers rolled down their windows and handed food to animals that have killed people, just to get the shot.
At least 20 brown bears emerged from the forest along the Transfagarasan mountain road in a three-hour span one sunny morning, walking right up to motorists who’d stopped to feed them and snap selfies. Signs on the road’s hairpin bends warn that feeding the animals is illegal and carries hefty fines. Drivers ignored them.
Romania holds Europe’s largest brown bear population outside Russia, an estimated 10,000 to 13,000 animals, according to the environment ministry’s preliminary DNA study. Urban expansion and climate change have shrunk their habitat, pushing bears into towns and cities to scavenge for food.
In Predeal, a mountain town in central Romania, 59-year-old Jean Stangaciu says a bear raids the rubbish containers near his home almost every evening. “We already don’t go out into town in the evening,” he said.
Lawmakers doubled the annual hunting quota in April to nearly 900 bears for this year and next, drawing criticism from conservationists who say hunters will chase trophy animals deep in the forest instead of the mothers and cubs wandering into towns.
“Hunting won’t happen where bears come to the roadside, on the Transfagarasan,” said Cristina Lapis of the Libearty Sanctuary, which shelters 140 bears orphaned or rescued from owners who kept them as roadside attractions.
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