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Ursine Alert

German Police Chased Stuffed Bear

Police in Germany scrambled to investigate the sighting of a large black bear on the loose in a forest. They were relieved and amused by what they found.

Memories of Bruno, the brown bear tragically shot dead in Bavaria last July, resurfaced at the weekend when a large black bear was spotted in the Black Forest region of southwest Germany.

Police in the small town of Titisee-Neustadt were alerted by a hiker who reported seeing the beast on the edge of a forest.

"The call prompted us to dispatch a squad car immediately," Dieter Klipfel, spokesman for the Titisee-Neustadt police department, told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

The officers did indeed find the bear. "He didn't seem to be moving much though," said Klipfel.

The bear turned out to be a lifesize replica positioned in a field as a target for the local archery club, which had received special permission to place him there, Klipfel said.

"Thank God we didn't shoot him," said Klipfel. A year ago there was public outrage at the killing of Bruno, a real brown bear who rampaged around the Alpine border region between Bavaria and Austria for seven weeks, eating dozens of sheep, strolling through villages and at one point sitting on a guinea pig.

Bruno was shot dead on the orders of the Bavarian government. He has been mourned ever since and is himself waiting to be stuffed -- not to serve as a target for archers one day, one hopes.

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