It's as if Bruno knows where his hunters don't have a radio signal in the narrow valleys of the Alps. Maybe he really is aware of modern technology. The ease with which he has eluded his highly trained pursuers in recent weeks certainly suggests he is cunning as a fox.

On Wednesday night, tracking dogs managed to find him in the Tyrolean Alps near Lake Achensee. But their Finnish handlers couldn't get to them because they had lost radio contact with the GPS locating devices strapped to the dogs.

"He often moves into radio-free zones as if he knows what he's doing," said a spokeswoman for the World Wildlife Fund, which is helping in the effort to catch Bruno.

A spokeswoman for the Bavarian environment ministry said that if Bruno isn't caught and tranquilized soon, hunters will have permission to shoot him dead because the risk he many hurt or kill someone is getting too great. The Bavarian government wants to put him in a fenced-off wildlife park if he is caught alive.

Several of the five Finnish bear handlers will be travelling back home at the end of this week because their two-week contract has run out. The remainder will stay on until Monday evening. After they've gone, Bruno's future doesn't look bright.

On Wednesday morning, Bruno smashed his way into a chicken coop, damaged two beehives and knocked over a rubbish bin. The Finnish hunters even had Bruno in their sights Wednesday, but were unable to set up a tranquilizer gun fast enough before Bruno once again disappeared.

He has killed dozens of sheep, chickens, rabbits and even a guniea pig in his odyssey round the Alps. There are around 20 brown bears in the Alps but Bruno has become a problem because he isn't shy of humans and has taken to looking for food close to where people live.