The animal's collar was found "intact" in the Passo 5 Croci - Val Cion mountain area on Friday, the Trentino provincial government said in a statement.

Park rangers searched the area where the bear, officially known as M49, was known to have moved on August 16 because the collar was giving strange signals.

Trentino authorities said they would continue trying to keep tabs on M49 by following his traces - as they did before he was fitted with the collar in July, when he was last caught.

The bear was first caught in July 2019 but ran off almost immediately from an enclosed area known as the Casteller, in what Trentino authorities at the time called an "unthinkable" escape.

He was again caught in April and taken back to the Casteller, but escaped in July, overcoming an electric barrier and breaking through a metal fence.

Bears, an endangered animal, are causing increasing concern in Trentino, an Alpine province just south of German-speaking South Tyrol.

Trentino's woods were re-populated with bears years ago, as part of an EU-funded program. As a result, their encounters with humans have become more common, and potentially dangerous.

Farmers have demanded containment measures against wild bears, which are blamed for dozens of attacks on farm animals. But drastic steps such as shoot-to-kill orders are opposed by environmentalists.

Australian Associated Press