Italian court suspended today for at least another month the killing of one bear that killed a 26-year-old runner in the Italian Alps.

The death of Andrea Papi on April 5, reopened a debate in Italy about the human and wildlife coexistence in an area where the bear population has increased since 1999, thanks to an EU-funded programme.

The bear in question, female, aged 17 years, known as JJ4was caught by rangers after her involvement in the attack was established by DNA testing.

The local provincial government says the animal should be put down as it has a history of attacking people, but environmental groups argue otherwise.

The Trento administrative court partially accepted appeals by environmental groups and froze the order to kill the animal until June 27, giving the parties time to submit further evidence.

Environmental groups were specifically asked to elaborate on their proposal to move the bear to a sanctuary in Italy or abroad as an alternative to killing it.

Judges said they would review the case at a hearing on December 14.

A spokesman for an animal rights lobby, LAV, said this meant the bear could not be killed before then. However, the court did not confirm this.

Judges decided the same moratorium on another bear, MJ5, which has not yet been caught and who has also been issued a death warrant after injuring a man in March who was walking his dog on a mountain path.

Local government figures show that Trentino had around 100 wild bears in 2021, with their population increasing by around 10% every year since 2015.

The governor of Trentino, Maurizio Fugati, said last month that the optimal number of the animal’s population would be around 50 and that his province now has around 70 “surplus” bears.