A biscuit-loving bear who was banished from a town after it raided a bakery has returned to the scene of the crime – after walking nearly 100 miles across difficult terrain to get there.
The wild bear, which has been named Juan Carrito by locals, has been ejected from the town twice for being a nuisance, but it seems to have a homing instinct that keeps bringing it back, reports The Telegraph.
Rangers in Roccaraso, a town in the Abruzzo region of Italy, had hoped to wean Juan off his dependence on discarded grub – especially after the resourceful animal broke into the bakery and snaffled up a load of freshly-baked biscotti.
But their best efforts seem to have been a waste of time.
Juan’s first eviction was in December, when he was airlifted by helicopter and left in the wild.
But after waking up from his hibernation in the mountains, he was back in town within days.
The second attempt to give Juan a new life happened last month. He had a brief spell in a wildlife park before being taken to the Maiella national park, in the Apennine mountains.
But less than three weeks later, he’s back again.
And officials admit they knew Juan’s determination to head home meant it was always a possibility that he’d make the long journey back to the ski resort.
In a statement, national park officials said: “Since March 25, the day when the bear was released back into the wild, until today, the bear has spent 18 days travelling through the valleys of the Maiella national park, walking around 150km, feeding off plants and ants.
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“The bear’s return to Roccaraso was an outcome which, since the start of the translocation project, was considered highly probable.”
Officials in the town are now scratching their heads about what to do with the celebrity bear next.
Juan is a Marsican brown bear – the rarest type of bear in the world.
They are found only in central Italy and there are thought to be no more than 60 left in the wild.
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