Is it my imagination or have there been a lot of bear stories lately?

NorthJersey.com: Spanish king denies shooting drunken bear

MADRID, Spain -- The king says it didn't happen. And the bear isn't around to talk about it.

A spokeswoman for Spanish King Juan Carlos said Thursday that Russian reports that the 68-year-old monarch brought down a tamed and inebriated bear during a visit in August were "ridiculous."

The palace confirmed the king, who is known to enjoy hunting, was in Russia at the time of the alleged shooting, but it says he didn't kill any bear, let alone one that was fed vodka-spiked honey.

"He neither hunted with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin nor killed a bear," a spokeswoman for the palace said.

But those denials are apparently not enough to stop regional Russian authorities from launching an inquiry into how the bear met its end.

Vyacheslav Pozgalyov, governor of the Vologda region, about 250 miles northeast of Moscow, set up a group to look into the August incident, said his spokeswoman, Yevgenia Toloknova.

Russia's top business daily Kommersant on Thursday cited a letter to the governor from the region's deputy hunting chief, Sergei Starostin, claiming Mitrofan, "a good-natured and joyful bear," was taken to the hunting place where local authorities "generously fed him with vodka mixed with honey and pushed him into a field."

"Naturally, a heavy, drunken animal became an easy target. His Highness Juan Carlos took Mitrofan out with one shot," Starostin said in the letter.

It might have been one of the many Juan Carlos impersonators who thrill crowds throughout Europe with their colorful antics...