DNA links pony’s death to bear recorded in Tirol in 2025

Genetic testing has identified the bear linked to a pony found dead in Pfunds, a municipality in Tirol’s Landeck district, as the same male bear recorded in the district in 2025, ORF reports. Tirol’s state government announced the result on Wednesday.

The pony was found in early August. Testing identified the bear as “tirol_05”, which was also detected in the Landeck district in 2024 and 2025.

Tracks from another bear, “Tirol_04”, were found in Pfunds in 2024, but it has not since been definitively identified by genetic testing in Tirol.

Separately, Tirol’s ÖVP-SPÖ state government issued an order authorizing the killing of a wolf in the Schwaz and Innsbruck-Land districts. A dead billy goat was found earlier this week in an alpine pasture in Fügenberg, a municipality in Schwaz district. After an official veterinarian examined it, authorities said there was concrete suspicion that a wolf was responsible.

The order took effect when it was published on Wednesday and remains in force until the end of October. The hunting community has been informed, the state said.