Giovanna Di Domenico, Maiella National Park

The management of food-conditioned bears represents a major challenge for conservation in human-dominated landscapes. We describe the case of the Apennine brown bear M1.176, born in 2020, whose early and intense exposure to people and anthropogenic food led to strong confidence toward humans and an almost exclusive reliance on garbage. During 2021 repeated dissuasion efforts and an initial relocation attempt didn’t change the situation. In early 2022, following one month of intensive but only partially-effective dissuasion in Roccaraso Village, M1.176 was captured and held in captivity for 20 days under conditions excluding human contact and providing only natural food, before being translocated to a remote area of the Maiella National Park.
After release, M1.176 remained for 16 consecutive days in the wild, feeding exclusively on natural food resources, avoiding villages and anthropogenic structures. Given the bear’s high level of conditioning and the short distance between the capture and the release area (≈30 km), both the duration of this period and the quality of behavior observed contrasted with expectations of a rapid return to human settlements. When the bear returned to Roccaraso, garbage feeding was markedly reduced and replaced by feeding on poultry. This shift coincided with the installation of bear-proof garbage containers and stricter waste management regulations.
This case shows that even highly food-conditioned bears may temporarily regain wild behavior and abandon systematic garbage feeding when food availability is effectively reduced. The 16 days spent in the wild represent an unexpected outcome of the captivation–translocation process and suggest that the period of captivity may have contributed to a partial behavioral reset. Overall, the case of M1.176 highlights the importance of prevention measures and supports combining food-access management with targeted interventions to improve behavioral outcomes even in severely compromised individual.