Bratislava - Brown bears in Slovakia may soon be struggling to save their own skin as the government's Environment Institute has called for their culling over fears that they pose a threat to humans in the small Carpathian country. While the institute's director Jan Mizerak has been calling for a radical shooting policy, animal welfare campaigners say clashes between humans and wild animals could easily be avoided.
There's no denying the fact that the protected predators on the High Tatra have been proliferating significantly. Their population in the wild has been estimated at between around 300 and 600 for years.
However, last summer Mizerak caused a stir with new figures: "There are now at least 800 bears. This number is unsustainable in our small country."
As natural food resources for the bears were running out, the animals were becoming more and more dangerous to humans, the head of the government institute warned.
Reports of bear attacks have intensified fears among the local residents, while sympathy for the animals has been dwindling. Only recently has the Environment Ministry made an official announcement that an average five to six people a year are attacked by bears - and the tendency was rising.
Bear attacks on other creatures, including the killing of sheep or the plundering of bee hives, have also entered the statistics.
According to the ministry, which has to pay out for the damage caused, spending in this area has been more than 4 million koruny (180,000 dollars) over the past two years.
Animal welfare organizations, such as the Slovak Wildlife Society, have admitted meanwhile that the number of bears protected by the law has increased significantly in recent years.
However, they deny that this necessarily leads to more clashes with humans. There were more annual attacks in the 1980s although the number of bears was significantly lower, they argue on special websites and elsewhere.
Instead, they have called for better preventative measures such as electrical fences for the protection of sheep to replace the "bear hunt."
People also had to learn to dispose of their rubbish more carefully, the animal protectors argue. According to the welfare groups, evidence shows that bears are more likely to approach human settlements when they can get easy access to food waste in unprotected waste bins.
The "bin bears" - as they are dubbed by the media - are increasingly getting used to live as parasites off humans, local media reports say.
It remains unclear whether Jan Mizerak will be able to enforce his plans to have hundreds of brown bears shot as special permission is still required for bear hunting. Some 60 to 70 permits have been granted annually in recent years.
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