A giant black bear, whom peasants have nicknamed ``Dracula,'' is creating anxiety in western Romania because of his taste for cattle and sheep, an official said Thursday.
Peasants whose livestock has been devoured by the hungry bear have lodged seven complaints in the past six weeks, said Nicolae Onetiu, head of the state hunting and fishing reserves in western Romania.
Dracula was named after the Transylvanian vampire count of legend because of his bloody appetite, said Onetiu. The male bruin weighs at least 300 kilograms (660 pounds) and has moved closer to inhabited areas from forested regions with the onset of cold weather, but is apparently not yet ready to hibernate.
Dracula has killed at least six cows and seven sheep over the past six weeks.
Most bears are omnivorous, but in Romania, many bears were weaned on meat, said Onetiu. Nicolae Ceausescu, the communist dictator toppled and executed almost a decade ago, was an avid hunter, and hunting reserve cubs were fed meat to make them grow bigger quicker, leaving generations partial to meat.
State rangers count 135 bears living in the Apuseni Mountains in western Romania, all of them protected by law.
(str/am/gj )