Goodbye to Caterina the bear, mascot of the Maiella National Park

Founder of the Palenara wildlife area, she was saved by foresters after 24 years spent in a cage

ROME – “A sad announcement for all the friends of the #parcomaiella and for the citizens of Palena. The bear Caterina has left us”. With these words, the Maiella Park announces, on its Facebook page, the passing of the bear who was the “founder” of the Palena wildlife area. Caterina had been hosted there for more than 9 years, “after the seizure that the Campania CITES Unit of the Forestry Corps had conducted in 2015 because the poor bear, probably imported from Eastern Europe, was locked up in a cramped cage in a private tourist facility.” Death occurred due to melanoma. Caterina had been entrusted to the Maiella Park “and, after approximately 24 years of life in a cage, the Palena Wildlife Area had offered her different spaces and stimuli, in the shadow of the mountain and in company, although always at a distance, of the other two bears, Iris and Margherita, who gave her company and, at times, even some reason for “spite” and mild competition”, say the owners of the Park. Caterina “introduced thousands of children to the life of bears and showed her calmness and confidentiality to countless groups of tourists and visitors to the Maiella. We will always be grateful to her for helping us start our educational and recovery journey of bears in difficulty in Palena and we hope to have deserved their precious presence with the care, attention and spaces that we have given them back, albeit partially, after a difficult life.

The Maiella Park continues: The Park’s veterinarians diagnosed her, a few months ago, with a melanoma on her right upper lip, a bad lesion which however remained non-invasive, without ever bothering her when chewing and eating. However, Caterina was 34 years old, which for a bear, even in captivity, is a lot. Little by little in the last few weeks she has become weaker, in the last 4 days she has been fed, lying down, on her straw bed. Since yesterday she had been in a comatose state and, this morning, she passed away without any particular suffering. A special thank you to all the citizens of Palena, to the local cooperatives and to all the children, collaborators and volunteers of the Park who met the bear Caterina and were able to talk about her and take her as a symbol of a renewed friendship between men and bears”, concludes the message.