And for the brown bear to survive in the Alps, its human neighbors must accept it, Schoenenberger said.

Switzerland is not the only country to struggle with the question of how to help humans and natural predators coexist without friction. In the United States, lawmakers in Minnesota voted last year to allow limited hunting of wolves, after they were removed from federal protection.

Conservation groups, including the Humane Society, opposed the decision, but the Minnesota-based International Wolf Center argued that wolves are a threat to domestic animals wherever the two coexist.