The Bear Killer

Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu loved to hunt bear. He loved hunting bears so much that he was afraid that if everyone hunted bears, there would be none for him to shoot. So he made bear hunting illegal, except for himself.

The folks at Curious Expeditions made a trip to The Museum of Hunting Arms and Trophies in Sibiu, Romania, and has more of the morbid (but fascinating) story of the Ceausescu and his hunting habit:

Nicolae Ceausescu was the leader of Romania from 1965 until December 1989, when a revolution and coup removed him from power (and life). Though he spent most of his time in power by running his country into the ground, it was a good time for the bears. An obsessive hunter, Ceausescu quickly depleted the bear population in his personal hunting reserve. He couldn’t kill bears if there were no bears to kill, so he made bear hunting illegal for everyone but himself. Anyone who killed a bear would be fined the equivalent of an average two year’s salary. Ceausescu, meanwhile, hung hunks of raw meat in the trees of his hunting ground, high enough for only very large bears to reach. For Ceausescu, the challenge or nobility of the hunt was beside the point, he only wanted the biggest and the best bears skins. If the skins weren’t impressive enough, he would have them stretched to look larger. [...]

Ceausescu often herded his bears into specially made corrals, to make choosing and shooting the best of the bunch much easier. It is said that he once killed 86 bears on just one expedition, and over 400 in his lifetime. (One source put the number significantly higher, at a unbelievable 4,000.) Despite the overwhelming number of bears Ceausescu killed, it is because of his egotism and desire to be the only bear hunter in Romania that the population of bears is so high today.

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