Bear causes stir in Austrian province

A young brown bear that emerged from dense forests in the south-western Austrian province of Vorarlberg and attacked three sheep in a stall earlier this week has become the talk of the town in the region, where the species was last spotted in 1860.

Rochus Schertler, a local biologist, today told Austrian television that experts were trying to determine if the bear, which made its appearance on Tuesday evening in the village of Galgenul, is “JJ II”, a young brown bear that made periodic appearances last year in the province of Tyrol and in nearby Switzerland.

Bear chat was dominating radio call-in shows in Vorarlberg, where experts called this week’s sighting a “biological sensation”.

Schertler said it was unusual for a bear to risk contact with humans, and that it appeared that acute hunger motivated the animal to go after the stabled sheep rather than hunt wildlife in its mountainous habitat.