In November 2021, a 2-year-old Italian brown bear, named Juan Carrito by the residents of Roccaraso, Abruzzo, broke into a bakery to eat some cookies. Despite being moved to a remote area of Maiella National Park in the same town, the animal was seen again at a nearby ski resort about a week later.
This year, the Mariscan bear was ensnared in a baited trap after being spotted lurking around a local train station and was brought to a sanctuary in Chieti province.
"The intervention was necessary to protect the bear and keep it away from potentially dangerous situations and, in general, from an environment where it has been feeding almost exclusively on waste for too long," Lucio Zazzara, president of the Maiella National Park, told The Guardian.
Officials are still hoping that Juan Carrito can be brought back to the wild and are currently working on the implementation of the procedures that will enable it to happen.
Image credit: Today