A motorcyclist was killed by a bear on the Transfăgărășan mountain road in a tragic incident near a hotel at the Vidraru dam, News.ro reported. The victim’s body was recovered from a ravine and transported to the Institute of Legal Medicine for examination.
The motorcyclist was reportedly part of a group traveling from Vidraru towards Bâlea Lake. According to Tvrinfo.ro, they stopped at the side of the road, when they were attacked by a bear. One of the group members was dragged towards the Vidraru area by the wild animal.
According to media reports, the motorcycle, found abandoned on the roadside, has Italian license plates.
An investigation is underway, with firefighters, gendarmes, and police officers present at the scene. Authorities also issued a RO-ALERT warning to locals, as the bear involved has not yet been located.
Bear encounters are not unusual in mountain areas of Romania, as the country is home to a large population of brown bears. In April, the Ministry of Environment shared the preliminary results of a study estimating the brown bear population to be between 10,419 and 12,770.
Reacting to the fatal incident, the National Forestry Authority, Romsilva, said on social media that the Arefu Hunting Fund 5, where the incident took place, “is managed by the Argeș Forestry Directorate and, according to the official assessment from this spring, has a population of 112 bears, compared to an estimated optimal number of 25.”
The state agency also said that in the Transfăgărășan area, the Argeș Forestry Directorate has installed over 20 warning signs, including in English, at identified risk points. “The bear population is continuously monitored by the fund managers,” reads the statement.
Residents and visitors are advised to maintain a safe distance if encountering a bear, not to feed wild animals, and to refrain from taking photographs with them. Still, incidents happen in popular areas like the Transfăgărășan, where bears got used to staying to receive food from travelers.
Ion Sănduloiu, head of Salvamont Argeș, warned that uncontrolled interactions between tourists and wild animals, especially feeding bears, inevitably lead to tragedies. “The moment someone gives food to a bear, the bear is sentenced to death. And the bear’s death sentence can result from an incident like this. That is, either a fatal attack or an attack where it destroys a hand… these have all happened recently,” he told news channel Digi24.
One such incident happened in May this year, when a foreign tourist was bitten by a bear while attempting to feed the animal near a hotel in Arefu commune, Argeș county, along Romania’s scenic Transfăgărășan road.
In 2024, Romania doubled the hunting quota for the brown bear to almost 500 following the deadly attack on a hiker in the Carpathians. After another severe attack in the mountain town of Predeal in March this year, former environment minister Mircea Fechet said that the annual quota for bear culling could be revised again.
However, environmental groups expressed serious concerns, arguing that hunting alone is not a sufficient solution to lower the number of bear attacks or sustainably manage the population. They have repeatedly said that the law passed last year could potentially open the door to trophy hunting, a practice that is in direct violation of EU legislation.
irina.marica@romania-insider.com
(Photo source: Fernbach Antal/Dreamstime.com)
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