The Tyrant Who Shot the Bears

I took a book called “Wild Stories” with me on our trip to Italy, and read this passage called “Creatures of the Dictator,” by Rick Bass.

“The reason there are now so many grizzlies in Romania—back in the 1940s, for example, there were only about nine hundred—is that Ceausescu liked to shoot them, sometimes killing eight or nine a day. He brought bears from Poland, and had a very active captive breeding and propagation program, raising scores of zoo bears and then turning them loose near his favorite “hunting” spot. He would bait the area with dead animals, horse meat and vegetables to keep the bears close, and each dusk when they came in to eat, he’d shoot the shit out of them.

Then he would have his picture taken next to the carcass and, if the bear was large enough, apply to have his name entered in the record books. This practice ultimately led to a large overall population (though, like communism, it was hell on individuals) because Ceausescu forbade anyone else to kill a bear, even if it was raiding crops or livestock—although he’d allow wealthy foreigners to pay thousands of dollars for the privilege.

Of course, he’s gone now—the bears outlasted him. It’s new blood that’s being turned over now, the old blood that’s soaked into the soil being furrowed and spaded and chopped and graded and there’s a new government, new hope and it’s springtime. Maybe this time it will be different.”