Family of Bears visit Abruzzo village in Italy

A bear known affectionately as Amarena took her four cubs for a ramble through the streets of the tiny Abruzzo village in Italy of S. Sebastiano dei Marsi where the family was filmed by local residents.

The mountain village, located in the Apennines in the province of L’Aquila, and is part of the Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo Lazio e Molise (PNALM), a protected area home to the critically endangered bears.

There have been repeated sightings of Amarena and her cubs, particularly in the area around Lago di Scanno and Villalago, where they were pictured eating cherries earlier this summer.

In recent days Amarena attacked and killed a sheep, in front of several forest rangers, dragging the animal into the woods to feed her cubs.

Visitors to the vast national park, which comprises 50,000 hectares of protected land, are reminded that although Marsican bears are not known to be aggressive towards people, they should not be approached, particularly when with cubs.