Italians cheer on wild bear's 'Great Escape'

[Still Waters]

Italian animal lovers cheered on a wild bear Tuesday after a daring escape from an electrified holding pen sparked a bear-hunt and a furore over its fate.

The three-year old, known only as M49, was captured Sunday in the Val Rendena valley in the Trentino region in northern Italy after it was spotted several times approaching inhabited areas.

But in a getaway compared by Italian media to Steve McQueen's exploits in the 1963 WWII film "The Great Escape", M49 went on the lam Saturday after scaling a four-metre (13-foot) high and 7,000 volt electric fence.

"Run bear, run!" said one user on Twitter as the #fugaperlaliberta (#escapeforfreedom) hashtag went viral.

https://phys.org/news/2019-07-italians-wild-great.html