Rožnov pod Radhoštěm - Some ten kilograms of decomposing meat, bones and sinews is all that is left of a rare brown bear, whose carcass has been found last week in the Beskydy Mountains in Moravia, in the eastern part of the Czech Republic.
The "body of evidence" in this apparent case of poaching has now been taken over by the Protected Landscape Area (PLA, or CHKO in Czech) officials. Experts are to examine the remains of the highly protected animal which the poachers probably found to be of no use, either for trophy-making or for eating.
It is estimated that there are no more than five of these wild beasts living in Beskydy and they pose no threat to the locals with zero attacks on people in living memory.
Macabre find
"What we have here is a ten kilo mass of what was once a bear. It is really not a sight for the easily disturbed. In fact, the person who found it was really shocked, thinking at first it was a human body," said the Beskydy PLA director František Jaskula.
The remains of the bear had been dumped in a sack in Ostravice river where they were discovered by a passerby a week ago.
"Its semblance to human remains was significant, especially so because of the missing claws," he explained, adding the samples would now be properly conserved before experts from the Academy of Sciences in Prague or Brno (it is still under discussion where exactly) take a look at them.
The PLA officials hope to be able to establish eventually whether the poached animal was a male or a female and whether it was a local bear from the Smrk mountain area or a beast from afar that went astray.
The end of Czech bears feared
The crime which has apparently taken place could have fatal consequences for the tiny group of bears living in the Czech Republic. Beskydy is their only local habitat and their numbers is estimated at three to five.
"A recent count found two adult bears living in the area near Smrk and Lysá mountains. The entire bear population now faces the danger of collapsing since the killing represents a loss of one third to one fifth," says Jaskula.
Police is now investigating the case with PLA filing charges against an unknown perpetrator.
"We imagine they have shot the animal, transported it in a car somewhere to skin it and get rid of the remains. I don't remember seeing anything like that here before," exasperates the PLA head.
Environmentalists from the Duha (Rainbow) movement offer a 100 thousand crown (five thousand USD) reward for the information leading to the capture of the poachers.
