Forest rangers have found the body of a man who was killed by a bear in a hut in a forest in Transylvania.
The rangers were called over the weekend to the aid of a man who had been attacked by a bear in Harghita county in central Romania.
“Rangers were asked to rescue someone who had bee attacked by a bear. Eight mountain rescuers were sent out and arrived at the area which was hard to reach. His body was found in a hut. He did not respond to resuscitation maneuvers,” Salvamont România said on Facebook.
Preliminary investigations showed he suffered serious bite marks and died some time before rescue workers arrived at the scene.
Forensic scientists took the body away and handed it over to authorities, the statement said.
Romania has seen about 100 bear attacks in the last three years. Incidents with hungry bears descending into villages and tourist resorts have sparked the ire of residents.
Romania is to conduct a census of its endangered brown bears using DNA for the first time. There are tensions between villagers and farmers who fear more bear attacks and conservationists who are opposed to looser hunting laws.
A hunting ban loophole that allows the shooting of so-called nuisance bears has been abused, activists say. They fear a rise in killings if the census finds the protected species is not that endangered.
Bear hunting which draws amateurs from all over the world in search of a “trophy” was banned in 2016.
Romania is home to over 7,000 bears, the largest bear population in Europe outside Russia.
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