JAVEA rubbish collectors on the Costa Blanca were astounded to find a stuffed bear in a rubbish container for garden waste.

“We’ve found strange things in the past but this is the strangest of all,” said a spokesman for the refuse collection service.

The dustmen were confronted by a huge brown bear lying on top of some pruned branches although after initial moments of panic they were relieved to discover that it was merely the work of a taxidermist.

Not that this was the first time the rubbish collectors have found the handiwork of taxidermists while on their rounds.

Javea residents have in the past divested themselves of the odd stuffed fox, large birds and the occasional genet, they said. But never a bear.

They are also accustomed to finding rubble and domestic appliances in the Puntos Verdes (Green Points) containers theoretically reserved for the waste from residents’ gardens. But not bears.

Recovered from the shock, the lorry driver and the other rubbish collection employees removed the bear which was moth eaten and past its prime, they said.

They took it to Ramblars where rubbish is sorted. Here the bear was classified as “inappropriate refuse” and despatched for burial and oblivion at the Les Canyades landfill in Campello.