Juan Carrito died, run over on the road by the bear of the Abruzzo National Park who wanted to be free

He was the bear who stole the sweets from the pastry shop window, who did not want to stay away from inhabited centers where he browsed through the streets, who let himself be photographed by the curious and crossed the streets of what, despite the urbanization and the many tourists for the ski season, he kept considering his territory. He died Juan Carritohit by a car traveling inside the National Park of Lazio, Abruzzo and Molise between Roccaraso and Castel di Sangro, along the SS17. An involuntary accident that crashed him on the guardrail, leaving him dying for almost an hour, while the Carabinieri of Castel di Sangro, the park guards, the foresters and the authorities of the Municipality of Castel di Sangro and the representatives of the Park intervened. And while many, passing by car, took photos and videos that portrayed him in his last moments of life.

His life in one of the most beautiful natural parks in Italy

Juan Carrito was lucky enough to be born, grow up and live in one of the most beautiful and oldest national parks in Italy, established in 1922. A naturalistic area of ​​extraordinary beauty, in the heart of Italy between Isernia, Frosinone and L’Aquila, just over 130 kilometers from Rome. Juan Carrito shared this territory, of which the Marsican bear has become the symbol, with wolves, lynxes, chamois, deer and roe deer. But in this mountainous corner of paradise, there are also wild cats, martens, badgers and skunkswhile its skies are perpetually crossed by golden eagles, storks, peregrine falcons And eagle owls. This was Juan Carrito’s world: one treasure trove of biodiversity through which he moved swiftly and surely, for he had never known anything but those mountains and those rivers that break into a thousand mountain streams.

Too few wildlife corridors that guarantee safe crossings?

That world, its habitat, though Juan Carrito she had had to learn to share it with men too. The Central Apennines, strongly anthropized, have not however been able to share it with him. Although the institutions of the National Park have in recent years tried in many ways to limit the attraction exerted by easy food on the bear son of the equally well-known Black Cherry bear, our territories are still far from being able to guarantee and safety for their non-human inhabitants. Those are still missing, or still too few wildlife runners which precisely guarantee the safe crossing of the major automobile arteries, essential for the necessary connections between towns and villages that dot the area but also for supporting tourist activities, especially ski slopes. «The animal will be recovered by PNALM staff and transported to the Zooprophylactic Institute for necropsy – declared the President of the Park, Giovanni Cannata through social channels. – There are no words for what happened. J. Carrito was a problematic bear but at the Park we did everything, against everything and everyone, to give him a chance and keep him free. Now she has left us…. Tonight we are all a little poorer because one of the family has passed away».

A year ago an attempt was made to move it to a more inaccessible area, but it was back

Juan Carrito, who was a great walker like all specimens of his race, he crossed these territories with ease. A year ago the administration of the park, in an attempt to keep it away from inhabited centers where its presence was increasingly recorded, had tried to transfer it to a less frequented and more isolated area. Sedato had been transported to a high altitude with a spectacular transfer by helicopter. Briefly moved to the faunal area of ​​Palena (Chieti), it was then transferred to an internal area of ​​the Maiella massif, with an operation carried out by the technical staff of the Maiella National Park. But Juan Carrito, who grew up with a mother who became famous for her nocturnal raids in the heart of sleepy villages that she crossed with all her puppies in towhad not been able to give up the attraction exercised by food left unattended or from the not always “bear-proof” garbage bins. He had become, technically speaking, a “confident” bear. He was back. And the area between Pescasseroli and Roccaraso, which he knew inside out, was his favorite. There are many photos of him crossing it, majestic and awkward at the same time, as was the enthusiasm he aroused in all those who had the good fortune to come across his proud and penetrating gaze. And this was his death sentence.

Il Parco: «We tried to make him live like a free bear», but it wasn’t enough to save him

Since last night the social networks of the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise I am filled with comments, tears, sadness and desolation for the loss of this precious bear for our wildlife heritage, since the population of Marsican bears is in fact extremely smalland the species is at the center of various European Union projects which aim to encourage its growth and double the number of specimens by 2050. Also the director of the Park, Luciano Sammarone, who cares about the park and its inhabitants, you were excited and sad in the evening. He spoke of an hour of agony, of the attempts to stabilize him, of the rescuers who did everything to keep him from dying on the side of a road that continued to be traveled by cars and cars. «We have done everything in these years to ensure him a life as a free bear. Unfortunately we didn’t make it and this makes us so sad. One of the family has gone away » she said. But she also recalled that, on Christmas evening 2019, another bear had been run over and killed. Perhaps therefore the work to make these roads safe, the barriers, the bollards, the blocked bins, the underpass, the faunal corridors so frequent in northern Europe, are still not enough. Indeed they are definitely not and something more must certainly be done to save all the Juan Carritos we have continued to fall in love with over the years.