If there's one sensitive and divisive subject in the Pyrenees, it's the bear.
The village that symbolizes the “old-fashioned bear” is Ercé, in the Ariège department.
Pyrenean bear showmen have acquired a reputation far beyond their original borders.
The village of Ercé was renowned for its bear school.
Captured bear cubs were reared and trained, then set off with their masters on long journeys throughout Europe and as far as the Americas.
For some years now, the commune of Arbas, in the Haute Garonne region, has been closely linked to the future of the bear, as the Pays headquarters of the Association l'Ours- ADET is currently based there.
Adet monitors and accompanies bear reintroduction operations in the Pyrenees.
The reintroduction of the bear in the Pyrenees has sparked a real battle.
The opponents are mainly shepherds who no longer want the bear to decimate their herds.
The bear in the Pyrenees also has a symbolic place, as bear worship is attested by the divinities of the Pyrenean pantheon associated with this animal, right through to the folk carnivals that have continued into modern times.
modern times.
The many place names derived from this plantigrade, the abundance of legends and folk tales about the bear testify to the bear's importance in the Pyrenees at all times.
In the 1980s, the government decided to launch a program aimed at restoring a viable, i.e. sufficiently numerous, bear population by introducing brown bears of Slovenian origin into the Pyrenees, close to the Pyrenean stock in terms of genetic heritage and lifestyle.
Between May 1996 and May 1997, three Slovenian bears were released in the central Pyrenees, helping to boost the population to between 14 and 18 bears by the end of 2005.
In 2006, five more Slovenian bears were released, in line with the plan to restore and conserve the brown bear in the French Pyrenees.
Following the much-publicized death of the last Pyrenean bear, Cannelle, shot by a hunter on November 1, 2004, there has been a major mobilization around the Pyrenean bears, between those who want to save them and those who oppose them.
Every six months, the Brown Bear Network, coordinated by the Office Français de la Biodiversité (OFB), publishes a newsletter called “L'Écho des tanières”, reporting on field activities and mapping the evidence collected on the bear in the Pyrenees.
Here is a summary of issue no. 63 of September 2024, compiling information from June to August 2024.
Team Bear's summer report from June to August 2024:
At least 10 different litters were detected (5 more than in spring) on the French side of the Pyrenees, i.e. at least 15 cubs, with increasing inbreeding.Numerous direct observations were made of females and their cubs eating umbellifers or bilberries.
Sorita's sons have been detected in the 65 and 64 regions.
The doyen of the Pyrenean population, Néré, was detected.
The automatic cameras of the Brown Bear Network have revealed that several sub-adult bears continue to colonize the eastern part of the range.
The Pays de l'Ours association has created the “Ress'Ours” center in Arbas, the first documentation center dedicated to an endangered species in France.
The aim is to collect all existing documentation on the brown bear and its return to the Pyrenees, and make it freely available to local players in order to improve the level of knowledge and promotion of the species.
Translated with DeepL.com
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