Until recently, Andy was a bear without a name. He was wandering through the forest that is managed by the Administration of Kronstadt forests, in the southern part of Brasov. Here, the rangers care for the bears that inhabit the area and ensure their welfare. But the young bear—either chased away by dominant bears, irresistibly attracted by the smell of barbecues, or possibly seized by a sudden desire for assertion and affirmation—breached the barrier between bears and people, approaching the terrace where the temptation came from, impermissibly. We don’t know for sure if it was just the smell of the barbecues coming from the guesthouse or the smell from garbage disposals that brought him so close to humans; the fact is that his daring and disrespect for some basic rules of coexistence with wildlife were to cost him his freedom.
First he had meals only from the restaurant’s garbage disposal. Later he crashed a wedding, had some barbecue, and finally sampled the local cuisine, running away with a sack of potatoes. Some locals were amused; others were angry. But everything turned into a serious issue when the bear started paying frequent visits during the daytime. And thus, the naughty bear grew to trust people and started to believe that maybe paradise is somewhere in Dambul Morii, where bears can live in peace with humans. How could he know that, one day, instead of being invited to dinner, he might receive a bullet? And all this because those who build their houses and hotels near forests don’t take any precautions to avoid conflicts with wild animals, their rightful inhabitants. An electrified fence and a generator installed around the property would have kept the bear away and would have taught him the rule, ”everybody has his own territory.” The barbecues that were held close to the forest, sending a message to the wild inhabitants saying ”you’re invited to dinner,” could have been held on another side, closer to the road, if the owner of the hotel had had a minimum knowledge about how to respect the surrounding nature.
So, to prevent the naughty bear from being shot, AMP requested permission to take him over, even though a license to shoot him had already been granted. And not because the representatives of the Kronstadt Administration wished the death of the bear, but because the locals—who were amused at the beginning—began to fear him and asked the authorities remove him from the area. Unfortunately, most people don’t know that once a wild animal comes in contact with humans he won’t be afraid of them anymore and usually pays with his life, even though he’s not guilty. Thanks to the intervention of the Ministry of Environment and the representatives of the Kronstadt Administration, Andy was relocated to the Libearty Sanctuary. And although the sanctuary offers the best living conditions it can, for a wild bear it’s still a prison. The naughty bear can never be free, because his life would always be in danger whenever he got close to other human settlements. All this could have been avoided with a minimum of interest and care in protecting a great natural wealth that Romania still has: the brown bear, king of our Carpathian forests!
The Libearty Sanctuary was set up to offer bears held in captivity the chance to spend the last years of their lives in partial freedom, and to prevent bears being taken from the forest. We have to ensure the conditions they need to live free and perpetuate their species.
