{"id":11805,"date":"2025-07-21T01:37:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T01:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/11805\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T01:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T01:37:09","slug":"bear-that-killed-runner-in-italy-moved-to-german-sanctuary-dw-07-20-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/11805\/","title":{"rendered":"Bear that killed runner in Italy moved to German sanctuary \u2013 DW \u2013 07\/20\/2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

A female brown bear, known as JJ4 or Gaia, that killed a jogger in\u00a0Italy<\/a> in 2023 has been relocated to a wildlife sanctuary in Germany.<\/p>\n

The move follows\u00a0legal battles and protests, after the bear \u2014 originally set to be euthanized \u2014 became the center of a debate over human-wildlife conflict<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How is the bear?<\/p>\n

The animal arrived early on Sunday morning at the Alternative Wolf and Bear Park in the Black Forest district of Freudenstadt.<\/p>\n

Staff at the sanctuary confirmed the bear, also known by the name Gaia, was transported from northern Italy overnight and appeared calm and in good condition upon arrival.<\/p>\n

“She has been cared for, has eaten and is behaving calmly,” a park spokesperson said. JJ4 is expected to be moved into a secure pre-enclosure later in the day.<\/p>\n

Why was JJ4\u00a0moved?<\/p>\n

JJ4 had been held at a wildlife holding facility near the city of Trento in northern Italy\u00a0since being captured last year.<\/p>\n

A search for the bear was launched after the body of 26-year-old Andrea Papi was found on April 6 in the woods of the Peller Mountain, where he had gone jogging.<\/p>\n

It was the first fatal bear attack in the country in modern history.<\/p>\n

After she was captured<\/a>, Maurizio Fugatti, president of Trentino\u00a0province,\u00a0ordered her to be euthanized.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, legal challenges and protests from animal rights groups eventually\u00a0led to a reversal of that decision<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The German sanctuary agreed to take the bear under strict conditions.\u00a0The transfer was kept secret until completion to avoid potential protests.<\/p>\n

What will happen to JJ4 now?<\/p>\n

The bear will live in a specially designed, one-hectare enclosure \u2014 surrounded by electric fencing and underground barriers.<\/p>\n

It was constructed at a cost of around one million euros (about $1.16 million), funded by private donations.<\/p>\n

Slovakia approves plans to kill hundreds of wild bears<\/p>\n

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video<\/a><\/p>\n

JJ4 is expected to receive a new name, as “Gaia” is already assigned to another animal in the park.<\/p>\n

Park officials say surveillance systems will monitor the bear’s activity as she adjusts to her new surroundings.<\/p>\n

Gaia’s mother, Jurka, mother, has been housed at the animal sanctuary since 2010.<\/p>\n

How common are bear attacks?<\/p>\n

The region of Trentino, once proud of its EU-funded “Life Ursus” reintroduction project, is now grappling with rising human-bear conflicts. In 2023, three bears were killed under new rules allowing targeted removals.<\/p>\n

The population has surged to around 100 since reintroduction efforts began near the turn of the millennium.<\/p>\n

JJ4 is the sister of “problem bear” Bruno (JJ1), shot in Bavaria in 2006, and of JJ3, killed in Switzerland.<\/p>\n

Though she had previously injured two people, courts had blocked efforts to remove her from the wild.<\/p>\n

After the fatal attack, courts repeatedly overturned orders for her euthanasia, allowing her to live.<\/p>\n

Edited by: Roshni Majumdar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A female brown bear, known as JJ4 or Gaia, that killed a jogger in\u00a0Italy in 2023 has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-11805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}