Environmental groups have accused a prince from Liechtenstein’s royal family of shooting and killing the largest bear in Romania, in contravention of a ban on the trophy hunting of large carnivores.
The Romanian NGO Agent Green and the Austrian NGO VGT alleged in a statement that the bear, who was called Arthur, was shot in March in a protected area of the Carpathian Mountains by Prince Emanuel von und zu Liechtenstein.
According to the NGOs, the prince, who is a resident of Riegersburg in Austria, had been given special approval by the Romanian environment ministry to shoot a female bear that had been causing damage to farms in Ojdula.
“But in reality, the prince did not kill the problem bear, but a male that lived deep in the woods and had never come close to localities,” the NGOs claim. “The bear named Arthur has been observed for many years by the Agent Green ranger in the area and was known as a wild specimen not accustomed to the man’s presence and the food sources he offered.”
The Associated Press reported that it had seen official hunting documents that confirmed that Prince Emanuel was granted a four-day hunting permit in March in Covasna County and that on 13 March “harvested” a 17-year-old brown bear, for which he allegedly paid €7,000 (£6,040).
Gabriel Paun, the president of Agent Green, said that Arthur was 17 years old and was the largest bear observed in Romania, and probably the largest living in the European Union.
“I wonder how the prince could confuse a female bear coming to the village with the largest male that existed in the depths of the forest,” Paun observed, saying he saying he thought it was “clear that the prince did not come to solve the problem of the locals but to kill the bear and take home the biggest trophy to hang it on the wall … they shot the wrong bear.”
Brown bears are a protected species under international and Romanian laws, and Romania outlawed trophy hunting in 2016. However, successive governments have granted exceptions, issued by the environment minister, in the case of bears that have caused serious damage or threatened people.
Ann-Kathrin Freude, campaign coordinator of VGT, said: “Trophy hunting must be outlawed [with no exceptions]. Otherwise, conflicts will escalate, and the species will be endangered, as has happened in most of Europe. It is a shame for Austria that Prince Emanuel abused a derogation to kill this beautiful bear.”
Romania’s environment minister, Tánczos Barna, told the Digi24 news channel that determining whether the bear killed by the prince was the one covered by the derogation was “extremely complicated”, but that an investigation had been launched.
Associated Press said its attempts to contact the prince’s estate were unsuccessful. Switzerland’s Blick newspaper quoted the prince as saying he wouldn’t comment on the matter.
Freude said: “The bear faces multiple threats that endanger its survival: habitat degradation, climate change and human persecution. The ministry of environment must address the causes that led to the bear-man conflict and not the effects.”
