Liechtenstein prince ‘shoots dead Europe’s largest bear’ after receiving permit to kill smaller animal

Romanian police have opened a probe into the killing of possibly Europe’s largest brown bear, after environmental campaigners accused the prince of Liechtenstein of shooting it during a hunting expedition in the country in March.

According to an animal rights group, Prince Emanuel von und zu Liechtenstein had been granted a permit to shoot a female bear that had caused damage to some farms. Instead, he is accused of shooting a 17-year-old male bear named Arthur, believed by conservationists to be the largest in the EU.

The Associated Press reported that the prince was granted a four-day hunting permit in March and that on 13 March he “harvested” a 17-year-old brown bear. He was allegedly paid a sum of 7,000 euros ($8,400) to carry out the killing.

Romania’s National Environment Guard (NEG) launched an investigation into the allegation of poaching on 29 April.

“We knew that a female bear was supposed to be extracted, but we afterwards found a (dead) male bear,” Octavian Berceanu, the head of NEG told AFP, adding that some of the official papers required after a bear kill were also missing.

Agent Green, an environmental organisation that observed Arthur for nine years, told AP that the bear lived in the wild and had no contact with human settlements.

The prince, who lives in Austria. has so far not issued a statement in the matter.

The office of the Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein told AFP it did not know the background of what it called the “private and personal matter”.

“However, the Princely House would like to point out that respect for nature has been one of the fundamental concerns of the House and is a central element of the family’s commitment to ecological and social sustainability,” it said.

With more than 6,000 brown bears, Romania is believed to be home to the biggest bear population in Europe.

In 2016, the country barred trophy hunting after the brown bear was protected by an EU directive. Hunting permits are still allowed for the killing of “problematic” bears that cause damage to farms or domestic animals. Such permission is supposed to be guaranteed only as a last resort when relocation measures fail.

Agent Green said that the environment authorities had issued a hunting permit following a complaint about a cub-rearing female bear causing damage in the village of Ojdula in Transylvania.

“Every farmer I spoke to in the village of Ojdula said that nothing had changed since the male bear was shot and that the female bear continues to come daily to the households. This is poaching as the prince shot the wrong bear — it was murder,” said Gabriel Paun, president of Agent Green.

Additional reporting by agencies

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