Juan Carrito is back. The bear left the mountains and went back to (his) country

The sickness of August in the Villalago cave

It is not the first time that Juan Carrito arrives in Villalago. In August, the military of the Scanno Forestry Police Station they had intervened to help him, after having found him inside a cave where he was lying down due to an illness. The veterinarians of the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise after having drugged him, had visited him and replaced him with the radio collar. The diagnosis was probable indigestion, the fact is that Juan Carrito was already considered a regular in the area at the time. In addition to Villalago, he had also been spotted several times in Roccaraso, where he had gone so far as to try to find food even in the town, which became a social star at the end of November when he was photographed eating dry biscuits in a pastry shop.

The transfer to the heart of the Marsica, far from the inhabited centers

Just to try to distort him from easy food and from excessive frequentation with inhabited centers, before some accident dangerous for him and for the population, the management of the National Park had decided to transfer him to a more inaccessible area. On 7 December, with an agreed and announced operation, the park staff had first drugged him and then, by helicopter, transferred him to the Marsica, in a lonely and inaccessible location between Pescasseroli and Pescina. The goal was precisely to get him used to a wilder life. “We would like to try to induce the bear to change its behavior strongly conditioned by anthropogenic food and by an extreme confidence towards people – they had folded from the Abruzzo national park – inducing it to, hopefully, ever closer wintering, releasing it in an isolated mountain context “.

A “homecoming” over 200 kilometers long

We also hoped for hibernation, because Juan Carrito had shown evident signs of disaffection with an ethologically natural behavior. But ethology, in this case, did not prevail, and the little bear, as soon as it could, instinctively retraced its steps. More than 200 kilometers separated him from Villalago, but that’s where he returned. It is not yet known whether he got rid of the radio collar with gps with which the foresters would have been able to monitor him in his return to nature and freedom. Or if he simply lacked food or company. In fact, having met the dog for a walk, he showed his appreciation for his presence for some games in the snow. Like two old friends from the village who had met again after a vacation.