Italy's environment minister has lodged an official protest with his German counterpart over the killing of a brown bear by a government-sanctioned hunter.
Part of a project to reintroduce the predators to northern Italy, the bear roamed into Austria and Germany, killed sheep and rabbits, stole honey and became the hero of a saga that made headlines around Europe.
Fearing the two-year-old bear would one day target humans, officials in the southern state of Bavaria granted permission to kill him.
He was killed with a single shot on Monday.
Italian Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio said in Luxembourg at a European Union session on the environment that the bear, a protected species, should have been shot with tranquilizers and transported back to Italy.
The Italian news agency Apcom said Scanio complained that his German counterpart, Sigmar Gabriel, appeared unaware of Italy's offer to send specialists to capture and repatriate the animal.
"We consider very serious and irresponsible the shooting of a bear, which was an example of a protected species being reintroduced in Italy," Mr Scanio told reporters.
"It is not credible that the EU asks all the world to protect species threatened with extinction, such as elephants or rhinoceroses in Africa, and then allow a protected bear to be slain on its own territory."
AP