Jay Jay One's Courageous Quest

While copy-editing Universal Press Syndicate's "EarthWeek" feature, an ecological week-in-review that lists the recent earthquakes, floods, volcanos and a couple of animal-interest stories, I learned about one bear's epic and controversial Bavarian adventure.

"JJI" is a two-meter tall brown bear who crossed over from Austria into Germany, where he has been terrorizing sheep, crushing beehives and basically just doing fun, stereotypical bear shit. Authorities later figured out "JJ" had journeyed all the way from Italy, where he was part of a project to reintroduce brown bears to the Italian Alps.

Though the situation is probably amusing to most folks, some Bavarian sheep-owners were pretty pissed, prompting Bavarian authorities to take action. According to the Los Angeles Times:

Bavarian Environment Minister Werner Schnappauf initially declared that the bear was welcome in the province but changed his mind after consulting experts. He said Monday that the animal might have to be killed or at least caged for good.

"The bear has turned into a problem bear," Schnappauf told reporters. "The animal has to be taken out of circulation."

Naturally, I think JJ should remain in heavy circulation (specifically 200 kilograms), and so do a lot of animal rights groups. For the time being, the bear has retreated back into Austria, where the government and people are a bit bear-friendlier. We'll have to see what happens. In the meantime, I also can't help wondering about the motivation behind his journeys (which is probably a result of my seeing "Over the Hedge" the night before). Maybe he just decided, "Italy is great and all, but this whole "reintroduction to the wild" thing is a joke, so I'm just going to lope my way on up to Bavaria, where the sheep are fat, the beehives are sumptious, the alp horns echo through the valleys and the living is altogether easy." I received a text message yesterday from Andrew Giessel that said "It is the courage of the creative person, as much as the art, which stokes my interest." I think you can apply that to JJ as well.

Regardless of whether he's making a statement or just following his animal instincs, this is certainly great material for a song, poem or screenplay. If any of you would like to write one, I'll be happy to post it here on this most visible and viable of Web sites. To read more about JJ, check out this story from the LA Times.