Two individuals were hospitalized after being mauled by a bear in Slovakia, officials said Sunday. The Environment Ministry may suggest making it easier to hunt the animals in order to reduce their population.
In Liptovsky Mikuláš, emergency services reported that a 49-year-old lady had a shoulder wound and a 72-year-old male received treatment for a hand gash caused by the bear.
According to reports, police drove the bear away from town.
Videos released on social media showed the bear running down a road and lunging at a guy on the pavement.
A 31-year-old Belarussian woman supposedly died in the adjacent Low Tatra mountains while attempting to flee a brown bear the day before the latest incident.
She and a male companion had been traveling through the densely forested region when the bear approached.
The man and wife ran in separate directions. A rescue dog discovered the victim’s body immediately after the male hiker asked for assistance.
There have been several recent bear attacks in Slovakia, including one fatal in 2021. More than a century had passed since the last lethal bear assault in the country was documented.
Bears have returned to their original habitats over the Carpathian mountain range, which extends from Romania to western Ukraine, Slovakia, and Poland, thanks to improved protections in Central and Eastern Europe.
The increase in human-bear confrontations has caused the Environment Ministry to consider asking the European Union to loosen bear regulations, making it simpler to hunt them to reduce their numbers and reduce the threat of such collisions.
The ministry has stated that it may reconsider the bears’ classification on the protected species list, claiming that their increased numbers suggest they are no longer endangered and can be deliberately targeted, reducing herds.
According to researchers, Slovakia’s bear population has not increased significantly and is currently constant at around 1,275.