The authorities and agencies involved in managing incidents of the interaction of a bear in residential areas, had to require management measures to deal with the recent incident of approaching a bear in a residential area and in particular a bear in the Florina Zoo.

In particular, the bear was first located and recorded on 22-09-2019 at 22:00pm, where the Forest Directorate of Florina of the Decentralised Administration of Epirus-Western Macedonia was immediately informed by the Florina’s Police Department. This put in immediate mobilisation of the Emergency Response Team, where with the assistance of men of the Greek Police and staff of the Municipality of Florina managed to expel the bear from the area.

The convening of the Steering Committee of Crisis Management at regional level under the supervision of the Decentralised Administration, was necessary and took place the next day of the incident in the Florina’s Directorate of Forests, with the participation of the Mayor of Florina Mr Vassilios Giannakis, of Mr Christos Michael representative of the Regional Unit of Florina and the Directorate of Civil Protection, of Mr Panagiotis Mihopoulos, representative of the Veterinary Directorate of the Regional Unit of Florina and of Mr Ioannis Isaak representative of the Hunting Federation “KOMAΘ” in order to evaluate the incident of the approaching of the bear in the wider area of the Zoo and the taking of administrative measures.

During the meeting, it was decided to remove the animal from the area, to close the Zoo for ensuring the safety of visitors and the Municipality of Florina to install an electric fence. Moreover, for the bear monitoring and the collection of additional information for the animal’s behaviour, it was decided to place cameras in the area by the Environmental Organisation “Callisto”. These were completed in the afternoon of the same day by Florina’s Directorate of Forests, the Environmental Orgnisation “Callisto” and the Hunting Federation “KOMAΘ”.

The collected records revealed the time period of the bear’s appearance in the area of the Zoo, material that was very useful for the Emergency Response team, who proceeded on 27-09-2019 with the first operation to expel the bear from the area by using special deterrents.

For the safe and effective implementation of the business plan, daily patrols are carried out in the wider area of the Florina Zoo, by Florina’s Forest Directorate of the Decentralised Administration of Epirus – Western Macedonia and the Florina Regional Police Directorate.

All residents are requested to be extra safe, not to approach the area of the Zoo and in case they notice a bear in the area, to immediately notify the Florina Forest Directorate or the Florina Police Department.