The two-and-a-half-year-old male, identified as "M90", was killed on Tuesday by Trentino forestry officials, according to a statement from the autonomous province.
"M90 was a dangerous animal... in light of his excessive confidence and frequenting of urban and peri-urban areas," the statement said.
More than once, the young bear had followed hikers, most recently on January 28, when M90 followed a couple for over 500 metres (0.3 miles) along a forest trail in Mezzana, it said.
The Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) "confirmed the need to remove the M90 bear as soon as possible," according to the statement.
The Italian branch of the International Organization for Animal Protection (OIPA) called the decision to cull M90 "short-sighted", however, and one that "does not protect biodiversity".
OIPA said provincial authorities had not disclosed whether they had shot the bear, or had euthanized him.
"M90 was a young bear guilty of having been spotted a few times near inhabited areas," OIPA said in a statement.
He was "responsible only for damage to an agricultural fence and an organic rubbish bin in the Sole Valley."
The president of the Trentino region, Maurizio Fugatti, who signed the order to cull M90, has said the number of bears in the region needs to be controlled.
In April 2023, a jogger in Trentino was killed in a bear attack on a woodland path, launching a debate on the dangers posed by the animals reintroduced in the region between 1996 and 2004.
That plan had allowed for just 50 bears to be introduced, but their numbers have grown in recent years.
There are today between 120 and 200 bears in Italy, according to official estimates, most of them in Trentino and the central region of Abruzzo.
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