| 1 | Origins of Bruno |
Like most European countries, Germany had been a bear-free zone since the early 19th century, with the last official sighting being in 1838. In 2006, however, all that changed with the arrival of a bear called JJ1, AKA Bruno, who would go on to become arguably the most famous bear in the world. Everyone had an opinion on Bruno in summer 2006 – he was either a bloodthirsty monster who slaughtered sheep for no reason, or a glorious example of large wildlife returning to Germany.
Bruno’s story started in a winter den in Italy somewhere back in 2004. He was the son of mother Jurka, who was part of the Italian bear reintroduction program. This Jurka was notorious for her aggression. She was introduced from Slovenia in the 1990s and had taken to ripping apart garbage bins, raiding rabbit hatches, and massacring sheep. She visited mountain huts and isolated villages alike, where she ate human food to her heart’s content.
Soon, she hooked up with another bear introduced from Slovenia, the comparatively calmer Jose. Over the first year of Bruno’s life, Jurka taught him every aggressive food gathering technique she knew. She was sowing the seeds of his eventual killing spree in Germany, as rather than the best roots to dig for, Jurka taught Bruno that if you only held your nerve around people, and didn’t let the honking of car horns bother you, then a limitless buffet of honey and rabbits could be yours.
| 2 | Bruno leaves his homeland |
By the time JJ1 left his mother to conquer his own bear territory, he was a well known troublemaker to Italian authorities. Soon though, he wouldn’t be their problem. In spring 2006, JJ1 stood high on a mountain ridge and gazed at a whole new land of opportunity – Austria.
On May 5th 2006, JJ1 was spotted on Austrian soil for the first time, in a Tyrolean village called Tosens popular with passing travellers. Most of them couldn’t believe their eyes. How could a bear be in Tyrol? They probably filed it under delusions of a drunkard, but the authorities took the sighting more seriously. Maybe it was an Italian bear, maybe it was a loose bear from the central Austrian colony, or whisper it, maybe it was a loose bear from some unknown, overlooked colony.
May 9th saw the first serious incident, as JJ1 went on a bloodthirsty rampage and slaughtered 11 sheep in the mountainous meadows near the village of Gargellen. One died instantly, while 2 bloodied and battered sheep were forced to be euthanised. The next night, JJ1 slaughtered a ram, and the night after he broke into a pigsty and trashed everything.
At this point, there was little media attention, but the authorities quietly brought in legendary bear expert Felix Knauer, veteran of the 1990s bear reintroduction in central Austria. On May 15th, he spotted several dark strands of bear hair next to some firmly embedded paw prints. Genetic testing pointed to either JJ1 or his brother JJ2.
| 3 | Early whispers of a bear |
It was now official – there was a bear on the loose in Austria. One incident on May 18th boosted the fear factor to another level, when a husband and wife were relaxing in their mountain hut and saw Bruno wander past the window casually. They reached for their camera, and seconds later, they had snapped the first ever photographs of JJ1 outside Italy.
His claws were so sharp they were noticeable from a distance, his chest and legs were like barrels, and his coat was a vibrant brown. Yet when Austrian officials heard the story, they gulped with fear. Why was a 2 year old bear walking past human beings with such little fear, as though they were daffodils?
Not long after, a gang of black grouse hunters were astonished when JJ1 lumbered past approximately 240 metres away. This was JJ1’s most relaxed period, as the authorities still hadn’t revved into action properly and there were no patrolling hunters and dogs to worry about. In the village of Lechtal, he was described as calmly walking past a garden fence on May 17th, before chilling out in a grassy field for a while. Another photo featured in newspapers was the punched in glass window of a beehive hut.
| 4 | Bruno the celebrity bear |
On May 18th, JJ1 was officially branded a level 3 “dangerous bear”. The Austrian bear scale originally devised by Knaur had four tiers, starting with good bear, before moving to critical bear, where action is needed but not urgently. Level 3 was a “dangerous bear”, where deterrents like rubber bullets or GPS collars are brought into action. The final, most feared tier was “very dangerous bear”, where the only solution is a swift execution.
Fortunately, JJ1 was one step ahead of the game. He had enjoyed his Austrian adventure, but it was now time to invade Germany. It was a decision that would turn him into a worldwide celebrity.
At first, JJ1 was greeted with joy, and the local media gave him the loving nickname of Petzi, after a friendly bear from a classic Danish children’s book. But by May 20th, dead sheep were already mounting in Bavaria. People began to suspect that JJ1 wasn’t a friendly, lovable bear which would care for a lost toddler in the woods after all.
Late in May, Der Spiegel gave JJ1 a new nickname – Bruno. This accompanied a regular column devoted to his atrocities called Bruno Watch, and over the next month, there was plenty to talk about.
| 5 | Bruno goes international |
Never before in the history of bears had media opinion changed so quickly. From May 19th to 22nd, Bruno slaughtered 11 sheep and a dozen poultry, and seemed to be particularly fond of hearts and livers. He didn’t just kill for food, he killed for pleasure and sport. JJ1 was slammed by the tabloids as a bloodthirsty monster.
Bruno was now the only topic of conversation in small villages – more specifically, the death of Bruno. Farmers couldn’t care less that brown bears were finally back on German soil after two long centuries. The problem was that Bruno’s wider celebrity was now reaching Elvis proportions. Germany was hosting the Football World Cup in 2006, and legions of drunken fans expressed their wish to meet the bear, who seemed to have arrived at the perfect time – it was like the workings of fate.
A mysterious British financier offered 2 million euros to protect Bruno, and German politicians were walking a treacherous tightrope, as they knew that the bear had captured the public’s heart (farmers aside). Because Bruno’s Italian origins hadn’t been widely publicised yet, the random appearance of a bear was truly magical. Buses crashed and planes dropped from the sky as the world’s entire attention switched to Germany.
| 6 | Bruno outsmarts all |
Bruno then departed to Austria for two weeks, performing such heinous acts as ripping a plank off a wooden mountain hut. On June 5th, he re-entered Germany, and this gained him yet another nickname – the marathon bear, as the WWF realised that he was sighted in Achensee, Austria 80km away just 5 days earlier.
On June 6th, two local lads from Tyrol thought it would be fun to go and visit the bear, and headed off in their car at 3:00am. Amazingly, they succeeded, and the next morning they led journalists to the paw prints when local police refused to believe them.
The next day, Bruno was spotted crossing a forested clearing by a hunter near Giessenback. For 30 minutes, the group watched Bruno ascend a snowy mountain slope, before vanishing down the other side. This was the perfect chance, because the steep, impassable cliffs on Bruno’s side would force him to retreat, and into a ready and waiting trap.
Unfortunately, the bear squad was too slow, and when they arrived, Bruno was already gone. Later that day, the female owner of the nearby Solsteinhütte was admiring the view when everything darkened and a giant teddy bear face suddenly stared through the window back at her. Her husband sprang to action, but all that remained were paw prints, and a sheep with a slightly injured shoulder.
| 7 | Germany calls in the pros |
Before long, half of Germany and most of its animals were on JJ1’s tail. The Bavarian government unveiled their secret weapon: four Finnish dogs guided by four Finish hunters. These were professional elk hunting dogs, whose sense of smell was supersonic. On June 10th, the gang touched down in Munich airport. The dogs’ fur was sheared to keep them cool in the hotter weather, and the hunters wielded narcotic darts.
As usual, chaos reigned from minute one, as a fresh paw print was discovered on June 10th which later turned out to be two overlapping dog prints. Every dead sheep was hysterically blamed on Bruno, including one that fell off a cliff. The Finnish team’s first mission began after reports flowed in of a destroyed rabbit cage in Tyrol. The determined Finns marched up the mountain slopes at 4:00pm, only to have their path blocked by a camera team from Austria’s national broadcaster ORF. Bruno had escaped again.
While all this was going on, JJ1/Bruno had no comprehension of how his global celebrity had swelled and how millions were watching his every move. The marathon bear’s only concern was eating enough sheep and honey to fatten up for the winter.
| 8 | Bruno takes over small town |
The obstacles to catching Bruno seemed to be neverending. On June 16th, the bear squad was forced to take shelter in a wooden mountain hut when a thunderstorm struck, despite the GPS signal flashing and indicating that the bear was agonisingly close.
The Bavarian town of Kochel became a hub of action, as later that day at 23:10, a man was walking down the immaculately swept pavement when he saw Bruno staring back at him about 70 metres away. The man escaped by slipping behind an apartment building, but when he edged into the next street, Bruno was staring at him from the exact same distance, having also changed streets. It felt like he was being stalked, and 1 hour later, the bear squad missed an open goal when Bruno was seen lazing around right outside the police station’s doors.
Either Bruno was taunting the police, or he had a guilty conscious that partially made him want to surrender. 20 minutes later, the Finnish bear crew arrived, and Bruno had vanished. The Finnish dogs tried to keep his trail, but couldn’t cope with the buzzing atmosphere of a town at night.
| 9 | Bruno’s lakeside stronghold |
Bruno was gaining power rapidly – he was not only hunting by night, but in broad daylight. He was becoming less and less fearful of people as well. With CNN and the BBC watching on, and the German public praying for Bruno’s survival, the Finnish squad received word on June 21st of a 7 chicken massacre near Brandenburg, Austria, where they found several fresh paw prints. They released their dogs, and minutes later, loud barkings sounded out as per the dogs’ training. They knew that Bruno was cornered, but as the Finns sprinted forward with their dart guns cocked, the bear slipped away just in the nick of time. Worse, they had lost one of the dogs too! It was eventually rescued by forest workers.
By June 24th, Bruno had reached the site of his eventual last stand, the base of the Rotwand mountain in Germany. Bruno approached one hiker called Gareis to within 3 metres, forcing the 3 hikers to form a close huddle to intimidate the bear. Bruno got the message and backed off, and was photographed relaxing in the lake’s waters.
The next day, he devoured a sheep in plain sight of hikers, but stood on his hind legs to investigate the onlookers only once. The owner of the nearby cabin was forced to shoo Bruno away after guests spotted him peering through the window at 20:30pm. Eventually, this spate of Rotwand sightings reached the Finns, and they knew they had him cornered.
| 10 | Bruno’s demise |
On June 26th 2006, the bear squad finally succeeded. In the dim light of 4:15am at high summer, Bruno was shot dead by the Kümpflalm near Rotwand with 2 bullets, from a range of 150 metres.
It was a perfectly legal killing, as the hunters had received a permit from the government. The Italian environmental minster was furious, and wrote a letter to his German counterpart Werner Schnappauf, while pressing the EU to open a human rights lawsuit against Germany. The opposition social democrats even demanded Schappauf’s resignation, while environmentalist Heinke Finke asked how she could possibly lecture third would countries about saving elephants and tigers: “I haven’t got much credibility as a German when we kill our only bear“. Amid the heavy pressure, the Bavarian government kept the hunter who fired the killing bullet anonymous.
Soon afterwards, JJ1 got his revenge from beyond the grave, when he mischievously triggered a diplomatic incident. Having died on Bavarian soil, the regional Bavarian government planned to stuff JJ1’s 400 pound corpse and store it in the Munich’s Museum of People and Nature, but a furious Italy insisted that the bear be returned to Rome. The federal government of Germany took Italy’s side, and while this spat was going on, Bruno’s body remained in a freezer. Who won the argument? The Bavarian government did – JJ1 is now stuffed and on display in the Munich museum, ready to terrify visitors for eternity (unless lightning strikes and he comes back).
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