Bear-Faced Robbery!

Reuters news agency have reported that a wild bear has been convicted of theft and damage for 'stealing' honey from the hives of a beekeeper in Dnevnik (Macedonia). The beekeeper reportedly attempted to drive the animal away by exposing it to "turbo-folk music", an action that was initially successful but failed when the electrical generator ran out of fuel. The court fined the state the equivalent of £1,750 in damages. This is yet another example of the rather odd responses to humans to animals. It is unlikely the bear has any concept of ownership or property. Presumably, as far as the animal was concerned, the hives were a happy source of high energy food for this opportunistic mammal and the "turbo-folk music" was an unnatural and unexpected source of aural disturbance. The court apparently assumed the bear 'belonged' to the state (perhaps they have no concept of 'wild'?).