“I was closing the shutters on the terrace of the house, because I had finished working in the garden, but when I turned towards the garden I saw a bear. He was standing in the middle of the meadow and was looking at me. We looked at each other for a while, I remained there, still, I didn’t know what to do, then he turned and went back into the house.” Stefano Businaro, husband of Giuliana Marchi, daughter of the unforgettable Albino, recounts his face-to-face encounter with a specimen of bear in the garden of his home in Mandrea, a mountain resort in the municipality of Arco.
“I go up to Mandrea every two days to keep the garden under control. In this period there are hares that eat my salad. The cherry trees however were full. It had never happened to me before I met him, not even on the street, as it happened to Daniele (Giuliana’s brother, ed.) a few years ago. But this morning (June 14) I wasn’t afraid. In the past I had found signs of his passage, in the vegetable garden and on the cherry plants.”
Ripe fruit in fact attracts the plantigrade, he is greedy for it. Last week a bear was caught in a camera trap a few kilometers further down the valley (laws). This morning, however, the animal made its “catwalk” in the garden of the Marchi house. “When I saw the bear walking towards the woods, I went back into the house, closed all the doors and called my son Lino (volunteer firefighter from Arco) who immediately alerted the Forestry Corps”. In the meantime, Stefano Businaro remained locked in the house and went upstairs until the Forestry officers arrived. “When I was at home I heard the bear’s heavy footsteps at the back of the house, then I heard it move away and go towards the pine forest”. “I was never scared, I even made the video, but to return to the car, which was parked after the vegetable garden, I waited for the forester to arrive.” The bear was an adult specimen. “Watching the video you can understand its dimensions – Stefano continues – the poles at the end of the garden are about 1.20 meters high. My father-in-law Albino and I had planted them. The bear, at the withers, was almost as tall as the poles, over a meter. A beautiful beast. Incredible, however, how quiet it was. I didn’t hear him coming. When he entered the woods I heard him trampling on some branches.” And now? Who thinks about the garden? “No problem – Stefano replies – the Forestry told me to make a lot of noise, banging iron, sheets of metal or anything else, so the animal goes away and stays in the woods”. No cherries this year, but at least there is some salad and other vegetables left.
