This past April, a spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus) was brutally killed in Venezuela’s Sierra de la Culata National Park. The spectacled bear is the only bear species in South America and is currently threatened with extinction in Venezuela, and has been classified as vulnerable (VU A2bc) in the other countries it inhabits.
Audelino Delgado, owner of the farm Las Tapias, presumably paid killers Jose Sanchez and Octavio Sanchez to murder the 60-kilogram animal. The motive is not clear, however the hunters responsible for the killing claim that the bear was killing livestock. The belief that the spectacled bear attacks livestock is common in this region and is the principle cause of death of these animals and has driven the spectacled bear to the brink of extinction. However, the species eats primarily vegetation, insects, and occasionally birds, small rodents, and marsupials.
Fortunately, Inparques personal, in conjunction with the National Guard, launched an exhaustive investigation to identify and detain those guilty of this ecological atrocity. The investigation also involved biologist Issac Goldstein, who presumably took biological samples of the dead animal without permission of the national park’s personnel and without alerting authorities of the death.
The investigation continues while authorities determine the involvement of other individuals and adequate punishment for those people responsible.
(Top Photo: A member of the National Guard holds in his hands evidence of the crime committed against the spectacled bear. Source: Diario Frontera.)
ParksWatch: September 2002