THE CASE OF THE BEAR ENTERING THE ELECTRIFIED FENCE IN VILLETTA BARREA (AQ) ITALY

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/a15cee_975a9a2279284524a2f61cbcabafbba3/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

In the last days of September 2019, like every year, I found myself photographing the bellowing of the deer in the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park. That day, however, I decided to rest and stay with my partner and my furry friend Kuma for some relaxing walks. As we were leaving our B&B in Villetta Barrea to go to have breakfast in a kiosk near the lake, I realized that there was something strange about the streets of the town. Many people were getting ready, some running nervously, some briskly, to crowd along a railing that established the border between the road and a private garden.

I had guessed what was happening given the time of year and, as we approached that place full of frenzy, we began to hear rhythmic sounds of photographic machine guns that sanctioned the presence of the bear in broad daylight in a garden enclosed by electric wire. We stood outside the rapidly increasing mass of people, perhaps for 15 or 20 minutes, then headed over to the railing and documented the event with 12 seconds of footage which you can see above.

We also took some pictures, but not of the bear, but of the effect it has on people, and headed off to breakfast. After 45 minutes we returned to our room and saw the park rangers make the traffic flow away and the people who were still preparing to crowd for a few souvenir photos on the railing, while the bear, unable to get out of that "cage", sat eating the pears of the tree unaware of the fact that shortly thereafter, she would be put to sleep by the park rangers and transported to a safe place to be released in peace.

WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE MOST SUITABLE ETHICAL BEHAVIOR IN THAT OCCASION?

I reflected a lot on what happened, because I suddenly plunged body and soul into a frightening emotional phenomenon, which showed the enormous interest that gravitates behind the figure of the bear. I perceived that the emotions that are at play in the presence of the bear are so strong that they close all connections with the mind. Using a modern term, I can say that we totally "disconnect" from every logical form and every cognitive process, to carry out emotions in the most direct and simple way possible. So I saw adults forcibly drag some children to show them the bear tangled in the branch of a fruit tree, while they tried in every way to forcefully oppose it because they did not want to see it, crowds of photographers remained for more than an hour photograph the specimen from the same area or even worse, some of them go around the private property to find a new photographic perspective, but inevitably surrounding it ... And in all this, other people who joined the first (I counted about 70 before I left) every minute that passed and cars stopped along the roadside with sounds, shouts and screams of nervousness.

Let's clarify right away that I'm not able to say how to "should" behave in these cases, which moreover are events to always be considered individually due to the innumerable variations involved. However something must be said, especially in photography.

When we are preparing to carry out photographic research in the faunal field, we must understand, before putting our hands on the instrumentation, "what" we want to portray. And that "that" is called Ethology, in our case "it's a lot of stuff". Knowing animal behavior means first of all getting out of the anthropocentric sphere in which we are immersed, understanding that the interpretations we give to certain animal attitudes can easily be confused by making an instinctive as harmful parallel with our own. The best way out of this unconscious loop is to remain anchored to reality and study what science has so far managed to know about a given phenomenon (in this case the bear) but above all, what we still don't know, that area of border that creates a shadow in our visual and cognitive cone of the world.

Knowing that we don't know always puts us on the right track to face situations in the best way. But this also implies having a certain awareness of what we are doing, of how we are moving in the present. And emotions are very often an obstacle if they are not well managed. It is no coincidence that what I saw in that precise situation is the result of a strong emotionality that was reinforced moment by moment in those present, photographers or not.

Let's start from the assumption that a Bear unable to escape is a heavily stressed Bear... even if she continued to eat. Staying for more than 1 hour taking pictures of a stressed specimen, in the same area (therefore filling the memory card with the same photographs) above all realizing that the number of people was slowly increasing, is not ethical, just as it is not choosing to go around the fields hoping that the bear could come out from behind the garden. In this case the action produced is to encircle an already highly stressed subject, creating rather serious prerequisites for a possible and eventual attack by the bear on people. With all that follows then... that is, an unbridled media battle by politically aligned journalists, but clearly not on the side of Science. Unfortunately, we see the wolf almost daily, with uninformative articles that have little to do with the real characteristics of this beautiful animal species. I know very well how difficult it is to find a bear at close range with the sun illuminating the subject perfectly, even for a bottle bottom as a lens, I understand it very well. I have been treading the paths of the Park for years to be lucky enough to find myself in front of them, years of idle stakeouts, frustration and cold that makes your bones freeze, heat that makes you want to strip naked and tired from the kg you carry on your shoulder over km and km of hiking in Olympic climbs. I know well what that strong emotion that takes you inside means, that devil that continually pushes you to try, especially when you have the opportunity to photograph the bear a few meters away. I don't criticize those who let themselves go to their devil, but I criticize the way. The useless process of staying for 1 hour to take photographs when people crowd around you and crowd the small strip of land overlooking the Bear. Remain stressing that animal stuck inside the electrified wire, for hundreds of photographs all the same and the same as the many other photographers who were there to take.

That case, that precise event had to be handled differently. The photographic hunt loses its meaning, its original purpose, if we think that it is only a way to have a trophy to show. And if we accept that it is only this in 2023, then we are no different from those who use other tools for recreational purposes to "detriment" of the fauna.

Having a camera in hand does not mean having the freedom to use it always and in any situation because we are convinced that it is a harmless tool. How we use this tool and how harmful it is depends only on us, on the world in which we dialogue with the natural elements. But also from the way we relate to nature, from how much awareness we have of ourselves in the present and in knowing how to manage our strong impulses. If we manage to achieve this awareness in photography and combine it with ethological knowledge, we will consequently achieve a more mature and profound ethics of respect and perhaps the Bruno Marsicano Bear will have a better chance of saving itself from its probable (alas) extinction.