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Bruno the bear on display in Munich

DDP/The Local
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Bruno the bear on display in Munich
Bruno, getting ready for his close-up. Photo: DPA

Bavaria's infamous Bruno the bear, who was shot and killed in the German Alps in June 2006, has been stuffed and will be on display in Munich starting next week.

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The city's natural history museum, das Museum Mensch und Natur, will show the "problem" brown bear on March 26, said museum director Michael Apel on Wednesday.

Taxidermist Dieter Schön has spent the last several months preparing the bear using a hairdryer and brush to get the finishing touches on his fur just right.

Bruno will be part of a permanent exhibit in the state-run museum at Nymphenburg Palace about the biology of brown bears and the current challenges of "bear management." The exhibit will include information on the turn of events that led to Bruno's controversial death.

Another bear, preserved some 170 years ago, will also be part of the exhibit as the last bear to be killed in Bavaria in 1835. Unlike Bruno's untimely demise, that bear's death was a celebrated event and his carcass was paraded through town streets as a trophy. A statement from the museum notes that displaying the two bears together will provide "an interesting comparison" of how the animals have been regarded in Germany through the years.

Bruno was shot on June 26, 2006 after the Bavarian Environmental Minister Werner Schnappauf gave the orders to kill the bear because officials believed his penchant for chewing on local livestock and causing mischief might make him a danger to humans. The death drew international media attention, and Bruno fans even sent death threats to Schnappauf for his part in the incident.

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