Rare bear may have been poisoned

(ANSA) - Trento, April 3 - A rare bear found dead in a northern forest may have been poisoned and suffered a "sad, horrible death," an Italian animal protection group said Friday.
    Packaging, including a piece of string, found in the stomach of the animal known as 'M6' suggests it ingested packed bait contaminated with poison, said a statement from the National Animal Protection Agency (ENPA).
    The bear was found dead in Val di Non in the autonomous province of Trento, a part of the Trentino-Alto Adige region in Italy's Dolomite mountains.
    There, government forestry and environmental agencies have been working to reintroduce a bear population that had been driven to near extinction.
    European authorities have also been working to cultivate brown bear populations.
    "The sad, horrible death of M6, which seems to be caused by ingestion of poisoned baits, is a very serious matter for which it is necessary to ascertain (who has) responsibility with extreme urgency," the ENPA said.
    It complained that although wild animals are protected by law, they continue "to be killed with impunity".
    Many Italians were outraged last fall, and a complaint filed at the European Commission, over the death of a rare brown bear known as Daniza.
    She was killed by a tranquilizer containing an overdose of anaesthetic administered during an operation to capture her in Trento after she cuffed a mushroom picker who allegedly become between her and her cubs.
    Her death left her two small cubs orphaned.
    Through a program called Life Ursus, about 10 brown bears were reintroduced in Trento, near Italy's borders with Switzerland and Austria, about 20 years ago after being driven out of the forested region.
    Provincial officials in Trento announced in 2013 that after decades of decline in the bear population, it began to recover with 40 bear counted, the number of females bruins slightly outnumbering males.