Andrea Papi of Caldes, Italy, was running his usual route when he was killed by what authorities believe to have been a bear. On Wednesday, local residents discovered the body of the 26-year-old, who frequently ran in the Val di Sole valley in the northern region of Trentino-Alto Adige.
Medical examiners arrived at Monte Peller, a peak in Trentino, and concluded that the wounds on his body were consistent with those left by “a large wild animal.”
Residents of Caldes were no strangers to these attacks. A bear tagged MJ5 attacked a hiker in the Rabbi Valley a month ago. “There have been attacks on farm animals in the last month, including a sheep mauled on the edge of the village of Caldes on 19 March,” residents told reporters in the village. “There have been several attacks in the area. We just had to wait for one person to die.”
Bear attacks are extremely rare. Only about 44 grizzly bear attacks are reported each year globally, and roughly half of the bear attacks between 2000 and 2015 were a result of a mother bear protecting her cubs, according to the journal Scientific Reports.
Still, if you’re a trail runner (or even a road runner), you stand a good chance of coming face-to-face with wildlife during your workout. If that creature happens to be a mother bear, ensure you’re not separating her from her cubs.
“Get out of that position quickly, but move slowly. Preferably, move sideways to really give the bear space,” Kate Kuykendall, an expert, and spokesperson for the National Parks Service, previously told Runner’s World. “When out of that position, you want to make it clear that you are not prey, she says. Speak in a low, calm voice to the animal, make yourself appear large, if you have children, pick them up so they don’t appear small, and don’t turn your back.”
If a bear manages to attack you, Kuykendall recommends different protocols for black and brown bears. While you can scare a black bear away by screaming and yelling, you’re better off playing dead if a brown bear catches you. With some luck, it will get bored and move on.
As the old wilderness wisdom goes, “If it’s black, fight back. If it’s brown stay down. If it’s white, say good night.”
Kells McPhillips is a health and wellness journalist living in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in Runner's World, The New York Times, Well+Good, Fortune, Shape, and others.
