Police have opened an investigation and ordered a post-mortem examination. The autopsy confirmed that the cause of death was injuries inflicted by an animal. The call to the country’s Environment Ministry follows a new rise in Romania’s preventive culling quota, which lawmakers this year increased to 859 bears. The limit stood at 220 three years ago and was doubled in 2024 after a fatal attack on a 19-year-old hiker in the Carpathians. Romania has the EU’s largest brown bear population, with a recent genetic study estimating up to 13,000 animals. Conservation groups argue that waste management, electric fencing and habitat protection should accompany any culling policy.