A shadowy movement caught Marco’s eye as he drove slowly through a village in the Abruzzo Lazio e Molise National Park in Italy’s Apennine Mountains. It was late evening, and he thought there was a chance that it might be a Marsican brown bear rather than a deer waiting to cross the road. Stopping the car, he switched off the lights to avoid stressing the animal. Having enough time to change the lens, he then had just a minute to take a shot through the windscreen as the bear walked out of the shadows and across the road, disappearing into the darkness of the woods. Though the light was poor, the backdrop made up for it, complete with nature-tourism posters. Most Marsican brown bears – an isolated, unaggressive and critically endangered subspecies – stay well away from humans. A few individuals, though, venture into villages to raid vegetable gardens and orchards, especially in the run-up to winter hibernation, when they need to lay down fat. This puts them at risk of being hit by cars, of retaliatory poisoning and of harassment: video clips have appeared on social media made by chasing the bears in cars. With just 50 or so bears remaining, every death is a disaster. Coexistence is possible, but only if both parties keep a respectful distance. Methods such as electric fences around orchards help deter bears from coming into the villages, and education can protect both bears and the nature tourism they attract.