Philip Bethge

Author: Philip Bethge

  • Climate Change: Carbon Dioxide is Killing Cold-Water Reefs

    The greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is acidifying the oceans. The first victims could be cold-water coral, which are believed to populate the edges of all continental shelves. Another endangered species is the plankton in the open oceans — the basic building block of the marine food chain.

    The Skagerrak strait is a gray body of water in March. But under the waves, at a depth of 100 meters (328 feet), an underwater Garden of Eden is growing. Whitish hard corals glint in the beam of the headlights of the Jago, a research submersible. Rosefish and bibs flit by. The coral reefs are home to sea stars, sea urchins, sea squirts, long-legged crabs and yellowish sponges. … More

  • Global Warming: Climate Change Sparks Scrap for Arctic Resources

    While scientists and conservationists worry about the potentially dire consequences of global warming, politicians and businessmen are already battling over how to reap the economic benefits from the Arctic thaw.

    It’s not always easy hoisting a flag on Hans Island. The Canadians even had to bring along their own rocks to weigh down the foot of the mast. But then nothing could stand in the way of the success of operation “Frozen Beaver” — at least from a Canadian perspective.

    It was last July when Canadian soldiers raised the maple leaf banner over the tiny isle between Canada’s Ellesmere Island and Greenland. Not long after that, Canada’s Defense Minister Bill Graham flew in by helicopter to proclaim that Hans Island will always remain Canadian. The provocation worked: Denmark promptly cabled a note of protest to Ottawa.

    The diplomatic spat marked the current highpoint of a … More

  • ‘Little Princess’ and the Bird Flu Mysteries: Tracking the Spread of Avian Influenza

    When bird flu reached Turkey, experts thought it was carried from Russia by migrating geese or ducks. So when wild birds migrate to Germany this spring, will they bring the disease with them? Not necessarily, say scientists.

    Michael Kaatz, who works for a stork reserve in the eastern German city of Loburg, can see the headlines now: “Little Princess Brings Bird Flu to Germany.” Right now, the stork “Little Princess,” the reserve’s pride and joy, is probably flying over Botswana. But soon enough she will be traveling on to South Africa, where she will spend the winter. And, more importantly, at the end of February, the celebrity stork will begin the trek home. Kaatz, who for the past few years has been using a satellite to track her migration routes, will be closely watching where she flies.

    According to Kaatz, the stork will stop over in Turkey before it gets back home to Saxony-Anhalt in eastern Germany. And in Turkey, of course, bird flu is rife. Which  means that Little Princess, who will be flying with several thousand other white storks on the way back to Germany, will be closely watched by virus experts. … More

  • Winter Sleepers: Researchers Ask – Can Humans Hibernate?

    In a new take on hibernation, biologists now believe that mammals are not the only ones who use the winter months to store up energy. Birds, and even humans, may have the capacity to switch to standby mode.

    By Philip Bethge

    The Hopi Indians call it Hölchoko: “the sleeping one.” During winter the tiny animal, weighing in at a paltry 50 grams, spends up to 25 days in a row in rock fissures or underneath cactuses. Its body temperature, normally hovering at just below a toasty 40°C (104°F), can drop to less than 5°C (41°F) during icy nights in the desert

    Only when the spring sun provides sufficient warmth and insects begin to move about does Phalaenopitlus nuttallii, the common poorwill, emerge from its winter sleep and take off into the air. The tiny bird, a native of the California and Arizona deserts, is uniquely adapted to life on an economy setting. The phenomenon is known as winter sleep, or hibernation, and it was long viewed as the exclusive domain of the marmot, the bear and the dormouse, mammals that sleep away about half the year.

    (more…)

  • Rentiere in Flammen

    Wie gefährlich ist Weihnachten? Sehr! Von verletzten Seelen und Drogen im Lebkuchen ist zu berichten. Selbst Weihnachtsmann und Christkind bleiben nicht verschont.

    Von Philip Bethge

    Der Weihnachtsmann ist tot. Er verglühte bei dem Versuch, alle 378 Millionen Christen-Kinder der Erde binnen eines Tages zu beschenken.

    Ein Schlitten, gezogen von 214 200 Rentieren, beladen mit 321 300 Tonnen Geschenken sei notwendig für den Job, hat Rod Morgan vom US State Department errechnet. Mit 3000facher Schallgeschwindigkeit müsse das Gefährt durch die Luft rauschen zwecks termingerechter Lieferung. Der dabei auftretende Luftwiderstand erhitze die Rentiere, bis sie in Flammen aufgehen: “Das ganze Rentierteam wird in 4,26 tausendstel Sekunden vaporisiert” – Santa inklusive.

    “Wenn er jemals Weihnachtsgeschenke lieferte, ist Santa jetzt tot”, bilanziert Morgan, der im Internet über die Mission Impossible am Heiligen Abend aufklärt. Seine gar nicht frohe Botschaft: Weihnachten ist gefährlich. Sehr gefährlich – und nicht nur fürs Personal. Stapel medizinischer Literatur beweisen: Körper und Seele droht Ungemach, wenn wieder die Weisen aus dem Morgenland heraneilen.

    Schon die Vorbereitung auf das Fest birgt jede Chance auf Schadensmeldung. “Vorweihnachtliches Trauma: Die Briefkasten-Guillotine” lautet etwa der treffliche Titel einer Fallstudie britischer Mediziner, die berichten, wie sich eine 59-Jährige beim Einwerfen von Weihnachtskarten die Fingerkuppe am Briefkastenschlitz amputierte. Von Trauma muss auch die Rede sein bei der Arbeit texanischer Forscher mit dem Titel “Begegnung mit der Wirklichkeit: Die Reaktion von Kindern auf die Entdeckung der Santa-Claus-Legende”. Das überraschende Ergebnis: Nicht die Kinder reagierten verstört, als sie erfuhren, dass es den Weihnachtsmann nicht gibt. Traurig waren vielmehr die Eltern.

    Zum Menü nimmt das Desaster seinen Lauf. Truthähne, die in der Mikrowelle explodieren, gehören jenseits des Atlantiks längst zur Folklore. Nachdenklich stimmen sollte auch der Fall eines Mannes, der auf

    einem Gasbrenner zu Weihnachten Filet Mignon mit vier Tassen Brandy flambieren wollte. Der Hobbykoch hatte Glück: Einzig Augenbrauen und Nasenhaare nahmen ihm die Flammen.

    Andere Weihnachtssitten wiederum scheinen geradezu dafür erdacht, Schaden anzurichten. Von einem 23-jährigen Dänen wird berichtet, der mit einer starken Schwellung am Hals beim Arzt erschien. Erst die Intensiv-Anamnese ergab: Der Mann hatte an einem Weihnachtsessen teilgenommen. Nach jedem Gläschen verpassten sich die Teilnehmer Handkantenschläge in die Nackenregion.

    Zum Trost wird sich der Mann ein paar Lebkuchen genehmigt haben. Doch Eltern aufgepasst: Das feine Gebäck hat es in sich. Drogen wollen Prager Pharmakologen in der Leckerei ausgemacht haben. Weihnachtsgewürze wie Muskat, Zimt, Gewürznelken oder Anis enthielten Vorstufen des Suchtstoffes Amphetamin, berichten die Forscher. Der findet sich auch in Designerdrogen wie Speed.

    Oh, du fröhliche Bescherung! Was die lieben Kleinen nicht alles schlucken können. Ganze Christbaumkugeln fanden sich schon in den Mägen der Racker. Überhaupt der Christbaum: Nicht nur geht er allerorten in Flammen auf. Seine Wirkung entfaltet er an den absonderlichsten Orten. Kanadische Mediziner etwa berichten von einem jungen Patienten, dessen Lunge sich über 18 Monate hinweg immer wieder entzündete. Erst eine Operation brachte Klarheit. Ein drei Zentimeter langer Fremdkörper fand sich im Lungengewebe: “Er glich dem Ende eines Tannenzweigs.”

    “Dies ist der erste publizierte Fall eines eingeatmeten Weihnachtsbaums”, schrieben die Autoren – sie irrten. In Australien lebte ein Zweijähriger über ein Jahr lang mit einem Kunststoff-Christbaum im Rachen. Ärzte fanden das Gewächs in seinem Kehlkopf. Die Familie, dazu befragt, erinnerte sich an eine “Hustenepisode”.

    Die Spitzenplätze der weihnachtlichen Morbiditätshitliste indes nehmen jene ein, die Anspruch auf den berüchtigten “Darwin Award” hätten, jenen Preis, den erhält, wer “den Genpool verbessert, indem er sich aus selbigem entfernt”. Es sind zu betrauern:

    * Jener Möchtegern-Santa, der seine Hüfte per Seil mit seinem geparkten Auto verband, um sich mit Geschenken den Schornstein des Familiendomizils hinabzulassen. Leider versäumte der Mann, seine Frau zu informieren. Die stieg in das Auto und fuhr davon.

    * Der 35-jährige Sachbearbeiter aus Südwestfalen, der auf einer Betriebsfeier eine Weihnachtspolonaise durch ein Fenster auf ein anliegendes Flachdach führen wollte. Der Mann ententanzte durch das falsche Fenster. Fünf Meter weiter unten traf er auf Beton.

    * Ein 34-jähriger Taucher aus dem Hessischen, der bei dem Versuch, einen Weihnachtsbaum am Grund eines zugefrorenen Stausees aufzustellen, das Bewusstsein verlor und ertrank. Warum der Mann die Konifere am Seegrund verankern wollte, bleibt rätselhaft.

    Zum Lachen ist das alles natürlich gar nicht. All jenen, die tatsächlich an Weihnachten verzweifeln, sei daher zugerufen: “Fürchtet euch nicht, denn euch ist heute der Heiland geboren” (Lukas 2, 10-11). Und schon der hat unter dem Fest gelitten. Das jedenfalls legt eine Studie eines australischen Kinderarztpaares nahe. Marion und Tieh-Hee Koh analysierten 20 mittelalterliche Gemälde von Jesu Geburt aus der National Gallery in London. Auf elf Bildern war der neugeborene Jesus nackt, auf sieben beunruhigend leicht bekleidet.

    “Die Temperatur in Bethlehem zur Zeit von Jesu Geburt wird auf etwa sieben Grad geschätzt.” Den Kohs zufolge erlaubt dies nur einen Schluss: “Jesus litt an Unterkühlung.”

  • Stem Cell Flambé: Test-Tube T-Bones on the Horizon Say Researchers

    A world which is free of caged chickens, slaughterhouses and avian flu is possible, researchers claim. All that’s needed is labaratory-made meat. While test-tube T-bones are still the domain of futurists, scientists have already taken the first important steps.

    The frog steaks were sautéed in a garlic and parsley sauce, then garnished with chives. When the feast was finally ready to eat, the artists sat down for dinner at the museum.

    Two years ago, at an exhibit in the French city of Nantes titled “L’Art Biotech,” Oron Catts, Ionat Zurr and Guy Ben-Ary dined on “tiny polymers stuffed with clawed frog cell à la Davis, flambéed with Calvados.” The artists, part of the Australian “Tissue Culture Art Project,” called their installation “Disembodied Cuisine.” They had mounted tissue cells from frogs onto small biopolymer substrates — about three centimeters in diameter — and watched as they grew into small “steaks.” The four frogs from which the tissue had been taken looked on from a nearby aquarium.

    The purpose of the project was to probe the boundaries between the living and the “semi-living,” while at the same time creating “victim-free meat” — meat that doesn’t require the slaughter of a single animal. The comical biotech installation was meant to “disturb,” says Catts. But real life could one day be just as disturbing. The vision of frog-friendly frog legs could soon become reality.

    And it’s not just frog meat that may soon be jumping from Petri dishes onto your plate. Laboratories, some hope, may someday replace slaughterhouses and even now, researchers are working feverishly to pull steaks and hamburger out of their pipettes. Their goal is the development of giant bioreactors where butcher shop wares are grown out of cell cultures, potentially forever relegating mass-production chicken farms, veal calf production and pigsties to agriculture museums. One day, say some scientists, meat incubators could become standard kitchen equipment, allowing consumers to grow their own liver pâté and meat balls, turkey sausage and smoked salami.

    “Animal products without animals”

    “The technology already exists for making a sort of pressed chicken in the laboratory,” says agriculture economist Jason Matheny of the University of Maryland. Researchers in the Netherlands are even studying ways to take the next step — from laboratory meat to industrial production. The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs has earmarked €2 million for a four-year research project at universities in Eindhoven, Utrecht and Amsterdam. The project is being co-sponsored by the meat-processing industry, which has kicked in another €2.3 million.

    “We’re trying to develop animal production without animals,” says cell researcher Henk Haagsman, director of the research group in Utrecht. At this point, he says, researchers still haven’t figured out whether laboratory meat can be produced inexpensively enough to compete with traditional meat. “But from a scientific perspective,” says Haagsman, “the sky is the limit when it comes to meat production in the laboratory.”

    The basic concept behind what is known as in vitro cultivated meat sounds surprisingly simple. Meat is mostly made up of bundled muscle cells, interspersed with fat and connective tissue cells. If it were possible to grow these cells in the laboratory and combine them at the right ratios, test-tube meat could become a reality. The patent that serves as the basis for the Dutch research project puts the issue succinctly: “The product has the structure and flavor of lean meat, but without requiring animals to suffer and without involving religious and ethical concerns or causing environment problems, all of which are the case in today’s meat production.”

    As promising as this may sound, biotech meat production still has many hurdles to overcome. Scientists are just now beginning to experiment with ways to reconstruct knuckles of veal and pig stomachs in the laboratory. Three years ago, US researcher Morris Benjaminson of New York’s Touro College was one of the first to experiment with the concept of growing filets in a Petri dish. After placing tiny muscle particles taken from goldfish into a nutrient solution, he observed how the muscle tissue grew by up to 14 percent within a week.

    Fetal calf serum gravy

    He then presented the thumb-sized results, in fresh and sautéed form, to a jury. “The smell and appearance corresponded to that of supermarket fish,” says Benjaminson. The only problem was that no one was interested in eating his fish nuggets, perhaps because his tiny goldfish filets matured in something called fetal calf serum.

    This nutrient medium, derived from cow fetuses, is prized in biology labs all over the world as extremely effective in growing cells. But it’s hardly suitable for use as a culture medium in food production, partly because it’s a potential source of the prions that cause Mad Cow Disease (BSE) and partly because it’s prohibitively expensive. Matheny estimates that a kilogram of laboratory meat would cost about half a million dollars if it were grown in calf serum.

    In order to make faux meat a reality, then, one of the first tasks is to develop an inexpensive ersatz nutrient solution from plants or mushrooms. Maitake mushrooms, for example, have already proved to be a possible alternative.

    One additional step, though, needs to be taken to achieve the dream of meat production entirely without animals. In his pioneering experiments, Benjaminson was still using real goldfish as the starting material for his cultures. But experts now believe they can create flank steak wholly without the flanks. The key? Cells called myoblasts, the non-differentiated precursors to all skeletal muscle cells. Tiny myoblasts are capable of dividing at a tremendous rate. If conditions are right, they ultimately combine and mature into the muscle fibers that characterize meat. “Only when myoblasts fuse does muscle tissue develop, leading to the meat structure we are familiar with,” explains cell researcher Haagsman, who is currently studying the process in pigs. He adds that certain growth factors, electromagnetic fields and a sort of cellular muscle-building are necessary to encourage the cells to fuse. Otherwise, he says, “you get nothing but cell paste.”

    Scientists are already concocting methods to conduct in vitro muscle development on an industrial scale. Matheny, for example, proposes using large support membranes made of edible collagen as a substrate for the cell strains. If the frames were stretched at regular intervals, Matheny theorizes, they would pull apart and essentially train the muscle fibers growing on them. As soon as the wafer-thin sheets of muscle material reached maturity, they could be harvested and processed into meat products.

    Tissue expert Vladimir Mironov of the Medical University of South Carolina has another elegant idea. His plan is to encourage myoblasts to grow on small spheres that expand and contract in respond to changes in temperature. The muscle tissue could then develop on the slowly pulsating spheres in rotating bioreactors filled with nutrient solution. Mironov’s plan also calls for harvesting the tissue balls and then processing them further, into poultry nuggets, for example. Mironov has already produced small amounts of turkey meat using a similar approach.

    Artificial blood vessels

    Nevertheless, the results of cellular bodybuilding are unlikely to live up to the standards of gourmet cooking. “We’re still a long way from juicy steaks,” Matheny admits. The problem, he says, is that not all cells can be supplied with nutrient solution in a filet-shaped tissue base. The laboratory muscle tissue would have to be permeated with blood vessels, so that muscle cells as well as fatty and connective tissue could adhere to these vessels. These types of tissue cultures have already been developed in medical research. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), for example, recently grew skeletal muscle tissue that develops its own blood vessels in the laboratory. When they were transplanted into the muscles of mice, a few of the blood vessels grown in the laboratory actually adhered to blood vessels in the mouse body, and then supplied the implanted tissue with nutrients.

    It’s a technology that may one day be used to repair the heart muscles of heart attack patients. But as a technology for creating artificial sirloins and chicken nuggets, it is probably not suitable, says Haagsman. “This kind of approach can only work in medicine,” he says. “It’s far too expensive and therefore virtually unusable in large-scale meat production.”

    All of which means that the world may have to wait a few more decades before the perfect flank steak emerges from a counter-top kitchen incubator. Nevertheless, the disciples of the Petri dish are firmly convinced that the technology will establish itself sooner or later.

    “The benefits for animal protection, the environment and our health are obvious,” says Matheny. He envisions an age free of large-scale animal farming with a concurrent elimination of disease risk and animal waste problems. “Meat grown in cultures doesn’t need pastures or stables, doesn’t need drugs and doesn’t contract BSE or avian flu,” he says. Matheny believes that astronauts and soldiers could be the first target group for laboratory meatballs. He even has plans to tweak the ingredients in the future: “We could make meat healthier, for example, by replacing saturated with unsaturated fatty acids.”

    Test-tube sausage is also likely to be popular among many vegetarians, especially as the culinary quality of laboratory meat is presumably similar to that of tofu cubes. Despite researcher Mironov’s claim that “the taste of meat depends on the fat; we can simply add fat cells to create taste,” the culinary delights of laboratory meat are not exactly earth-shattering at this point. The “ultimate nouvelle cuisine” created by the “Tissue Culture Art Project” artists in Nantes ultimately proved to be a flop.

    Bio-researcher Catts reported that the frog steak was gelatinous, and the substrate had the consistency of material.

    And the taste? “The sauce was good.”

    Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

    –> read original story at SPIEGEL Online International

  • Mad Cow Disease: British Pair Believe Cows got Sick By Eating Human Corpses

    Did humans transmit Mad Cow Disease, or BSE, to cows? According to a new theory, diseased human body parts from India may have been fed to British cows.

    In traditional Hindu culture, after a person dies, the body gets ritually bathed, the corpse gets burned on a pyre and the head of the dead person is then crushed. Family members then deposit the remains of the deceased into the holy river.

    This Hindu funeral ritual is performed hundreds of times a day along the banks of the Ganges River, in places like the holy city of Varanasi, also known as Benares. According to Hindu legend, the spirits of those whose ashes are scattered into the Ganges at Varanasi escape the perpetual cycle of rebirth and proceed directly to heavenly nirvana. In many cases, this practice results in half-cremated corpses floating down the Ganges. Until recently, … More

  • Brown Bears in the Alps: The Great Bear Comeback

    The brown bear is returning to the mountains of Central Europe, thanks to resettlement projects in Italy, Austria and France. Biologists celebrate the animals’ return as a success in endangered species protection. But the general population has mixed feelings about welcoming back the predator.

    By Philip Bethge

    It was Christina Kröll’s dog which showed the first signs of agitation. Only minutes later did she herself catch a glimpse of the massive creature that had frightened her pet.

    Kröll, the wife of a butcher from the town of Nauders near Italy’s Resia Pass, says that she saw the bear standing on a forest path less than 30 meters (about 100 feet) away as she walked her collie early one summer evening. The bear followed the 53-year-old woman and her pet for about 15 minutes, until Kröll reached the vehicle that she believes saved her. “I was afraid — to the point of panic,” says Kröll. “The only thing between me and the bear was the glass windshield in my car.”

    Kröll spotted the brown bear in August, and news of the encounter quickly spread throughout the town. But Nauders, it turns out, was merely a stop-over for this shaggy troublemaker. The young bear Kröll saw on the forest path, since named “Lumpaz,” has been making his way through a region bounded by three countries, Austria, Italy and Switzerland, for the past three months, and an excited local population has been following his every move.

    In late July, the animal became the first bear to step onto Swiss soil in a hundred years when he strolled into the Münstertal, greeted by dozens of curious bystanders. A few of the tourists were even foolish enough to move within a few meters of this large predator. The Zürich tabloid Blick ran a cover story entitled “Yes, the bear is back!” But, on a more cautionary note, the paper asked “Just how dangerous is our brown bear?”

    Friend or foe?

    The story of Lumpaz is symbolic of the dilemma facing Central Europe’s biggest predator. The animal, which can weigh up to 300 kilograms (662 pounds), causes equal measures of euphoria and horror the minute it is spotted — not surprising given that in these areas human beings were the ones to drive it out in the first place.

    Outside of Russia, there are still about 14,000 bears in Europe, mostly in Romania and the Balkans. But “ursus arctos arctos,” the European brown bear, is making a comeback elsewhere in Central Europe too, aided by resettlement projects in Austria, Italy and France. In particular, the creature is making his way back into the forests of some of the continent’s hot spots for mountain tourism – such as Austria’s Northern Limestone Alps, Italy’s Dolomites and the Pyrenees on the border between France and Spain.

    While biologists see the brown bear’s return as a success story, it has also revived the age-old conflict between man and beast. What happens when the first hiker is killed by a bear? How will shepherds, beekeepers and hunters react to the bears? And why should today’s Europeans make room for a predator that, only a hundred years ago, frequently met a horrible death in steel traps?

    Bear experts from all over the world recently came together at the 16th International Bear Conference on Italy’s Lake Garda to discuss these issues. (Meanwhile, an Austrian research center has just completed a long study on European brown bears sexual habits.) Appropriately clad in multifunctional trousers and outdoor shirts, the delegates, sipping Bardolino and snacking on Pizza Romano, discussed such topics as the infanticide common among male bears and the use of barbed wire to obtain hair samples. But the issue at the top of everyone’s agenda was the “human dimension.” “Some people see bears as sexy and charismatic,” says Alistair Bath of the Large Carnivore Initiative of Europe, “but for others they are evil, blood-thirsty predators.” For Bath, the central issue is this: “Just how much of the wild are people willing to accept?”

    Just knowing that this powerful animal has been sighted somewhere in the area can turn a mountain hike into a completely different out-of-doors experience. The Italian nature park Adamello Brenta is less than 50 kilometers (about 31 miles) north of Lake Garda. From the Dolomite village Madonna di Campiglio, a funicular takes you up to the Grosté Pass, at an altitude of 2,450 meters (8,038 feet), from where you hike down into the Tovel Valley — to a spot surrounded by the jagged walls of the Brenta Massif. “We released the animals down there,” says Claudio Groff, pointing into the valley. “And now they walk across this pass at night.”

    Groff is the bear expert for Trento’s regional government. Since 1999, the Italian has been leading a team with only one goal: to resettle the brown bear in the Italian Alps. In 1950, there were still about 70 of the creatures living in Trentino. By the 1990s, that number had dwindled to three older males. “That meant, of course, that offspring were out of the question,” says Groff. The scientists decided to address the problem with resettlement. They released “Masun” and “Kirka” in 1999, “Daniza,” “Jose” and “Irma” a year later and, finally, “Gasper,” “Brenta,” “Maya,” “Jurka” and “Vida.”

    The ten animals were lured into baited traps in Slovenia, which has a thriving bear population, and were then trucked to the Adamello Brenta Park. The bear museum in nearby Spormaggiore documented their arrival on video. Like drunken sailors on shore leave, the brown bears stagger from their shipping crate into their new environment. After briefly scenting the weather, they head into the underbrush. “The resettlement has been a great success,” says Groff. “At least twelve cubs have been born already.”

    The excitement of the wild

    Hiking through bear territory is an incredible feeling. It’s a five-hour walk from the Grosté Pass down to shimmering Lago di Tovel. Pulses quicken as the forest becomes more dense closer to the lake. After all, a bear could emerge from the underbrush at any time. What then? “Don’t run away,” as experts advise? And if attacked, “lie on the ground, stomach-down” and “play dead?”

    “Fear is a completely normal reaction,” says Groff, “the bear is bigger, faster and stronger than we are.” But human beings are not part of this predator’s normal fare. “There hasn’t been a single known death in Italy, Spain or Austria in the last 100 years,” Groff adds. Besides, the animal’s diet is 75% vegetarian. But is that enough to calm jittery nerves?

    Trentino Alto Adige is in the heart of ancient bear country. “Orso bruno,” the brown bear, appears 49 times in the local place names. But reference to the bear is far from flattery, and indeed was once the expression of a bitter enmity. Historically documented bounties for the bear and faded photos of celebrated teams of hunters, the bear’s skin at their feet, are witness to the South Tyroleans’ proud victory over this powerful animal. And now, once again, the furry animals are managing to reignite old grudges.

    According to the Trento provincial government, there have been more than 250 reported incidents of bears attacking livestock, raiding beehives or scaring humans since 1999. “The problems were especially serious this year, when a few bears went into towns,” says Groff. “Jurka,” a female, has particularly worried scientists. She has developed a taste for chickens and tasty garbage, both available mainly near towns and villages. “Many people want us to get rid of this animal,” says Groff, “but Jurka is one of the few females who produces cubs regularly. Within the space of only one year, she’s already been seen with two new cubs.”

    A 21-member bear management team is on hand to prevent the conflict from escalating. Employees of Italy’s forest police shoot at overly aggressive bears with rubber bullets to “frighten” them. The provincial government pays for mobile electric fences to protect sheep herds in their Alpine meadows at night. Shepherds and beekeepers already receive financial reimbursement. The Italians have paid almost €160,000 in compensation since 1999.

    “Resettling bears is very expensive and has been causing problems for decades,” says Piero Genovesi of the Italian wildlife conservation organization, Istituto Nazionale per la Fauna Selvatica. According to Genovesi, a population is only considered stable once it reaches about 50 animals. For this reason, Genovesi fears, the Trentino bears would have to be managed intensively for up to 80 years, and even then success is not a guarantee. The delicate balance between bears and humans could swing back at any time.

    Take Austria, for example. For the past 15 years, Austrian biologists have been trying to bring back the brown bear. But they remain “miles away” from a “stable situation,” reports Georg Rauer of the Austrian World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Rauer was there when, 16 years ago, the Austrian bear saga began on a hopeful note when scientists brought in a female bear, “Mira.” Two years later, she gave birth to two cubs, fathered by the legendary “Ötscher bear,” which had entered Austria from Slovenia back in the summer of 1972. Two more bears were soon resettled in Austria, and the project seemed to be heading in the right direction. Just five years ago, the Austrians were able to proudly count a brown bear population of 25 to 30 animals.

    An attorney for bears

    But their elation has since been tempered. “We haven’t seen any signs of young animals in two years,” says Rauer, who has devoted his efforts to bears since 1995. Indeed, the bearded biologist terms himself a “bear attorney,” an arbitrator of sorts between human and beast. Whenever a bear causes trouble, Rauer quickly arrives at the scene to assess the damage. “The animals here have become especially fond of rapeseed oil, which is used in chain saws and large machinery.” Rauer recently dealt with a case involving a steam roller that a bear had dismantled to reach the oil in the hydraulic system — the most costly damage he has ever seen, says the biologist.

    According to Rauer, bears cause less than €7,000 in damage each year in Austria. He has never had any reports of direct conflicts between bears and humans. But the Austrian bear population is shrinking again, suggesting that public sentiment is once again beginning to turn against this funny, reclusive creature.

    “27 animals have been born here since 1991,” says Rauer. However, current genetic analyses of hair samples show that there are only about ten animals living in the state of Lower Austria and five to six in Carinthia (Kärnten) today. The situation speaks for itself, as far as Rauer is concerned: “The remaining bears were most likely shot illegally.”

    So it seems that biologists’ dreams of a peaceful coexistence between predators and humans are constantly being thwarted by both our primal fear of the beast and the stupid pride of a new breed of bear hunters. There isn’t much room for the brown bear in Western Europe to begin with. At the Lake Garda conference, Spanish researchers Carlos Nores and Juan Herrero reported that the population of Cantabrian bears has declined to 100. Nowadays, only about 50 bears travel along the mountain passes in Italy’s Abruzzi region. And despite resettlement programs, the population in the Pyrenees is also suffering. Last November, the death of female Pyrenees bear “Cannelle” (the French for cinnamon) stirred the emotions of the French. The animal, accompanied by her cub, came into a hunter’s crossfire in the village of Urdos.

    To protect her cub, Cannelle attacked the hunter’s dog, and the hunter shot the bear. The incident prompted hundreds of bear supporters to stage protests, both in the Pyrenees and at the Panthéon in Paris. Even French President Jacques Chirac called it “a tremendous loss for biological diversity.”

    “One could do all kinds of exciting research and still end up with a pile of dead bears,” researcher Bath soberly concludes. Nevertheless, he is convinced that the brown bear deserves a permanent home in the mountains of Central Europe. According to opinion polls, a solid 75 percent majority favors the animals’ return. “Especially the local people are often intensely proud of the fact that specimens of this great carnivore still live in their region,” says Bath.

    Locals should grin and bear it

    In the case of the troublemaker making his rounds at Resia Pass, biologists can only hope that local residents will continue to tolerate the animal’s escapades with patience. Young bear Lumpaz, since identified as an offspring of Dolomite female Jurka, is doing exactly what researchers want him to do: He is migrating, bringing the biologists closer to their goal of making the brown bear indigenous to the entire Alps region.

    At the same time, however, the animal’s youthful curiosity makes him what Rauer calls a “problem bear.” On the one hand, the region’s tourist industry appreciates Lumpaz as “free advertising,” and vacationers in Switzerland’s Münster Valley are already getting a taste of the latest local specialties, “bear pizza” and “bear beer.” But officials are also concerned about the safety of visitors.

    To deter bear tourists, they keep the animal’s exact whereabouts a secret. Lumpaz, they believe, has become too comfortable with humans, and Christine Kröll isn’t the only one who has been frightened by the bear. The animal came within five meters of a tourist, also near Nauders, and a hunter near Ramosch “practically had a heart attack” when he looked up to see the bear standing in front of him.

    “The bear is a large, defensive animal, and the consequences can be serious if it feels threatened,” warns Rauer. He insists that Lumpaz has not been aggressive yet, but that the real problem is that he spends too much time near villages. “We should quickly cure him of his trusting nature.” But now the bear’s education will have to wait until next year, since Lumpaz has migrated south to spend the winter in South Tyrol, where he will soon curl up in a cave. When that happens, things will quiet down for a while for the bear and his champions. Lumpaz, like most bears, will be hibernating until next March.

    Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

    –> read original story at SPIEGEL Online International