Romania's parliament on Monday approved the culling of almost 500 bears this year in a bid to avoid attacks on people.

The measure was passed following the death of a 19-year-old hiker who was dragged away by a bear in the Carpathian mountains in central Romania last week.

What do we know about the bear culling measure?

Romania has annual kill quotas to control the size of the country's bear population.

In 2023, the country had a killing quota of 220. A measure was approved by Romanian lawmakers on Monday to increase that number to 481 in 2024.

Romania has Europe's largest population of brown bears outside of Russia.

The Romanian Environment Ministry estimates their number at up to 8,000.

Environment Minister Mircea Fechet said in March that 26 people had been killed by bears in the last 20 years.

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu summoned lawmakers for a special parliamentary session to deal with increasing bear attacks after the killing of the young woman. They also held a minute's silence in her honor.

Lawmakers argued that the bears' overpopulation" had led to an increase in attacks.

Environmental groups denounce planned cull

Environmental groups have condemned Romania's plans to cull more animals, with wildlife experts arguing that bears will continue to scavenge in cities as urban development eats into their habitat, climate change limits their food sources and people feed them.

"The law solves absolutely nothing," World Wildlife Fund (WWF) biologist Calin Ardelean told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.

He argued that the focus should be shifted towards "prevention and intervention" and dealing with what he referred to as "problem bears."

The Romania-based private conservation group Foundation Conservation Carpathia told the Reuters news agency that the number of attacks "fluctuates yearly" and is not directly related to the rise in bear population.

sdi/ab (AFP, Reuters)