Ravenous Bears kill 14 sheep in a week in Switzerland
Pastor Dale Morgan
Ravenous Bears kill 14 sheep in a week in Switzerland*
GENEVA, July 4 (AFP) Jul 04, 2007
Two very hungry bears have killed 14 sheep in a week in eastern
Switzerland, local authorities said Wednesday.
The first bear killed 10 sheep last week in Grisons, while the other
attacked a flock near the Fluela Pass in the Alps on Tuesday, killing
four of them, according to the Grisons hunting and fishing office. A
fifth sheep died after falling from a cliff, possibly while fleeing the
bear.
Honey was also emptied from hives last month by bears in Grisons.
Bears had disappeared from Switzerland in 1904, when the last sighted
specimen was shot by hunters in the southeastern region.
But a brown bear was spotted in the Swiss Alps two years ago. It was
thought to have wandered over from the adjacent Stelvio National Park in
neighbouring Italy.
Bears from Slovenia were reintroduced to Italy's northeastern Trentino
region in 1999. The animals are also present in Austria.