🕯️ LEGENDS GARDEN
🍪 Juan Carrito
Marsican brown bear (Ursus arctos marsicanus) · The mountains around Roccaraso and Castel di Sangro, Abruzzo, Italy
Lives in Legends Garden
Juan Carrito was a young male Marsican brown bear, a subspecies down to roughly 50 to 60 animals, and the son of a well-known female called Amarena. He grew up entirely unafraid of people, wandering into the ski towns of Abruzzo, playing near local dogs, and in the incident that made him a national character, breaking into a bakery at night in Roccaraso and eating the biscuits. Wildlife officers captured and relocated him twice; the second time he walked roughly 150km back to his old haunts. He wore a radio collar and about 150kg of him was tracked constantly, but on the night of 23 January 2023 a car hit him on the road to Castel di Sangro and he died of the trauma. The park director said it was as if a family member had died.
What they do
Rears up on his hind legs against a shop door, hauls it open with both front paws, drops back onto all fours with a biscuit clamped in his jaws and chomps it, shoulders rocking.
A four-year-old with the appetite of a burglar and no fear of anybody's back door
Lore
- ★He broke into a bakery at night for biscuits, which is what made him famous across Italy
- ★Relocated twice to remote mountains, he walked about 150km back to Roccaraso
- ★He weighed roughly 150kg and wore a tracking collar for his own protection
- ★His mother, Amarena, was herself shot dead near the national park in August 2023, seven months after he died, causing national outrage
Helping the real one
💛 Support Juan via Salviamo l'Orso - Associazione per la conservazione dell'orso bruno marsicanoSalviamo l'Orso works specifically on the Marsican brown bear population Juan Carrito belonged to - clearing wildlife underpasses, mitigating conflict with people, vaccinating shepherd dogs. The Dona ora page takes PayPal, card, bank transfer and Italian 5x1000 tax designation. This opens their own official page. Money never touches this site.
Where this comes from
Every link here was checked twice before it was published. If one is dead or wrong, tell us.