A bear has been spotted at the borders between Hungary and Serbia.
Hungarian custom officers have seen a bear crossing the Hungary-Serbian state border. In these lowland regions, however, these large carnivores do not occur. The animal probably set out on a several-hundred-kilometre long journey while searching food.
The bear was caught by an infrared customs camera at a border village of Hercegszanto at night to Wednesday. “A patrol car was sent to investigate it and confirm if it really was a bear,” Hungarian web sites cited the local police. In the lowlands of the south Hungary it is the first known bear visit in the modern time.
The brown bear occurs in forest and mountain areas in Europe, including the Balkan. “If Europe had a functional network of wildlife-corridors, similar watching could be more frequent and bears and other big beasts of pray would have a possibility to migrate among the core regions of their occurrence,” pointed out Dalibor Dostal, the director of European Wildlife conservation organisation. Because of non-functional wildlife-corridors and poaching bears are on the decrease in some areas in Europe, though. Some time ago they were exterminated in Austria.
Because of problems with protection of large carnivores and lack of creating conditions for the return of these animals are Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic part of the Black Triangle of European Biodiversity.
