“The man tossed the bear to the ground and the bear ran away!” Homo (non)sapiens meets bear in Transylvania (III.)
Stories with bears and about bears – taken from qualitative interviews with locals in southern Transylvania in summer-autumn 2013.
H = Hans Hedrich, interviewer
I = Interviewed person (in this case a 80 year old Romanian farmer in the village of Prod/Pruden, Sibiu county, close to Sighisoara)
H: Can humans and bears share this same area in the future?
I: I don’t think that we can live with them.
H: And why so?
I: ‘Cause they’re dangerous! They’re dangerous… Have you seen [on TV] how a guy has wrestled with the bear? When the man got attacked by the bear, he simply caught the bear at his throat. The bear hit the mans head so that his hat flew away (…). But then the man [who was very strong] tossed the bear to the ground! Then the bear got up on his feet and ran away.
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