Austrian prince probed for allegedly killing Romania's 'largest' bear, say authorities

A member of Liechtenstein's Royal family, Prince Emanuel von und zu Liechtenstein, has been placed under investigation for allegedly killing Romania's largest known brown bear, authorities said on May 5. As reported by The Associated Press citing official hunting documents, the Austrian prince was granted a four-day hunting permit in March in Romania's Covasna County and he "wrongly" killed a massive 17-year-old brown bear, who was called Arthur. Romania's National Environment Guard (NEG) started the investigation on April 29 and poaching is one of the suspicions. 

The Guardian reported citing NGOs that the prince had been given special approval by the Romanian environment ministry to shoot a female bear that had been causing damage to farms in Ojdula, however, he ended up killing a male bear which is now considered as a trophy hunt. The prince, who is a resident of Riegersburg in Austria has allegedly paid the princely sum of $8,400. It is worth mentioning that brown bears are a protected species under international and Romanian laws and Romania officially banned trophy hunting in 2016.

"All of the papers from National Environmental Guard will go to the police," said a senior official from Romania’s environmental ministry, Octavian Berceanu. 

"The local environment agency should inform the Environmental Guard after the shooting, but this didn’t happen," Berceanu added.

An environmental nongovernmental organisation Agent Green, that monitored the large male bear for nine years said that the giant had no contact with human settlements. Agent Green has claimed that the hunting permit was issued based on a complaint about a "problematic" female bear. "It was always about shooting the biggest bear and not about solving the problem of the community," Gabriel Paun, president of Agent Green, told the AP. "I wonder how the prince mistook the biggest male living deep in the wild against the much smaller female next to the village."

Due to Arthur's large size, it was considered a "Golden" trophy, prized specimens that can fetch nearly $25,000. In one of Switzerland's newspapers, Blick quoted the prince as saying he wouldn't comment on the matter. The Associated Press has reported that repeated attempts to contact the prince's estate were unsuccessful. 

"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," Paun said.

IMAGE: AP