More than 200 puffins have been found dead along the coasts of Asturias and Cantabria in the last six weeks. SEO/Birdlife, who are unsure as to the cause, suspect the real figure could be in the thousands.  More here

…an estimate of 5 packs within the park and its immediate surrounding areas. Of these family groups they estimate that each consists of between 5-9 family members, giving a minimum 25 and maximum of 45 individuals, not including the few probable loners. These figures are far below those claimed by local farmers.

Fapas have released their latest news bulletin with an interesting selection of news on carrions, vultures and bears.  In the picture a bear tucks into a cow. Read

Great news from biologists at Oviedo University; they now have positive DNA tested proof that two young bears are the progeny of a female bear from the east and a male from the west. Two hair/faeces samples taken in Redes Natural Park (Asturias) in November last year found two siblings, one male and of one unidentified sex. Another sample taken this spring in the Picos de Europa National Park has confirmed the analysis. More on this soon. Europa Press

• Above map from Wikipedia

Many thanks to Lisa on the forum for letting me know about this news, which is key to guaranteeing genetic diversity for Cantabrian bears, whose twin populations were separated more than 60 years ago.

Good news – in part. The population of brown bears in the Cantabrian Mountains continues to grow. According to the latest bear census, a total of 19 female bears raised 37 cubs last year. The census was carried out in Asturias, Cantabria and Castilla y León by the Fundación Oso Pardo. However, the situation in the eastern populations of bears straddling Cantabria and Castilla y León continues to be “worrying”. Of the 37 cubs raised, just three cubs were raised in this area. The rest were raised by bears in the far healthier western population. El Mundo

In demonstration of the improved situation of bears in the western area, the World Conservation Union has just reduced the classification of the bears in this area from “Critically endangered” to “Endangered”. La Nueva España

Fapas have managed to capture some lovely photos of Villarina. the bear cub that was found alone on a road last year, and was later released back into the wild.
More on bears on the forum

The captive bears Paca and Furaco have finally mated after failing to do so last year. Paca has lived with her sister Tola in a mountainside enclosure for many years and both have play a great role in making bears accepted in Asturias among the general public. As I understand it any cubs are likely to have the fate, and be kept in semi-captivity.

Read in El País

More on Paca and Tola here and the story of the pairing here

• Read in El Mundo

Dan Ward has sent me his latest Lynx Brief, the essential periodic review in English of the state of the Iberian Lynx.

This issue looks at, among other topics, the international Iberian lynx seminar, current Iberian lynx numbers, plans for Iberian lynx reintroductions, inappropriate predator control, declines in wild rabbits and transparency of information in Castilla -La Mancha.

Some highlights which I have cropped from the original:

• On lynx numbers As reported at the III International Seminar, Iberian Lynx recovery has continued well in the Sierra Morena area just north of Andújar, Andalucía, with 40 breeding females, 55 cubs born in 2008 and 150 individuals overall. This compares with 18 females, 22 cubs and 60 individuals in 2002….As a result of this increase, the lynx area in Andújar-Cardeña has probably reached its carrying capacity and thus could provide animals for future reintroductions elsewhere. This is an unexpected, welcome and important achievement, not least because it is generally preferable to reintroduce felines bred in the wild rather than those bred in captivity (if possible) because they are more likely to be fully adapted to living in the wild.
• In addition to these in situ achievements in the Sierra Morena, the ex situ captive breeding programme has also progressed well, with 52 individuals, 24 of which were bred in captivity.
  Moreover, the ex situ population will also be able to provide 20 to 40 individuals per year for  reintroductions, from 2010. Finally, in Doñana, the lynx population seems to have remained steady in recent years, with around 50 individuals reported in total each year between 2002 and 2008. This is despite the loss of at least 9 individuals to Feline Leukaemia Virus (FeLV) in 2007, thanks partly to the successful translocation of a breeding male lynx from Andújar-Cardeña to Doñana in December 2007
  (see LynxBrief no. 10 and 11). Moreover, a second lynx was successfully translocated into Doñana in November 2008.
• On predator control Much of Spain and Portugal is used extensively for hunting, and this is especially true of current and potential lynx areas; e.g. 70% of Spain is covered by hunting estates (used by over 1 million registered hunters), and the majority of lynx living in the wild are situated in such estates. Moreover, techniques used by gamekeepers and landowners to kill, especially, rabbit and partridge predators have been strongly implicated in the past decline of the Iberian Lynx, and the on-going decline of many other species. For example, it is suspected that the 1990s extinction of the lynx population in Montes de Toledo, central Spain (where good habitat and rabbit populations remain) was due to the widespread use of leg traps and snares in the area.
• On rabbits and lynx One of the key obstacles to reversing rabbit decline has been that rabbits, and rabbit conservation, in Spain and Portugal have not been given the profile and attention they deserve….Fortunately, this situation has recently changed. In Portugal in 2006, national authorities re-classified the European Rabbit as “Near Threatened”, and in Spain in 2007, the species was re-classified by national authorities as “Vulnerable”. Moreover, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) has also, just this year, re-classified the European Rabbit globally in its native range (Spain, Portugal and parts of north Africa) from “Least Concern” to “Near Threatened”.
• Castilla – La Mancha and transparency a lack of transparency of information has also been a key obstacle to Iberian Lynx conservation in recent years. A very current example, discussed at the International Seminar, was the presence of lynx in Castilla – La Mancha….The Castilla – La Mancha authorities have argued that they cannot release the location of their lynx because they fear attracting too many nature watchers to these areas. However, the precise location of lynx in Andalucía has been widely publicised for many years without a detrimental impact from the public….It has been alleged that the real reason that the Castilla – La Mancha government do not want to publicise the location of their lynx is actually because they are reluctant to share knowledge (and thus power), or because of a fear on the part of landowners that public knowledge of lynx presence will increase pressure for restrictions on the current use of predator  control methods. Moreover, it has also been alleged that at least one of the locations of lynx in Castilla – La Mancha is a large estate bordering Andalucía, owned by a British Lord, who allegedly has considerable influence over local authorities.

Read the Lynx Brief 12

Photo from the Iberian lynx recovery programme.

News from lne.es 

The bear cub found injured in June was released back into the wild on Tuesday in Somiedo.

Lisa notes: “The movements of her family (mother and two sisters) have been monitored closely and the release was made in the same vicinity. As nothing like this has ever happened before in the Cantabrian mountains, the outcome is far from certain although Fapas are hopeful that she’ll be accepted back into the family group. They recount the story of bear cubs orphaned in the Pyrenees and later adopted by another female bear. She’s been tagged and is carrying two radio-transmitters which they say will be lost when she moults next spring.” Read more on this by Lisa on the forum

• See original story Bear cub found injured on road in Somiedo

 News from elmundo.es

Photo from Mundo de Gea

More on Spain’s bears on the forum

Lucy has written another great post, this time on a walk we did in Collserola. Boars, botany, hedgehogs, spiders and these remarkable nightjars:

“Churring filled the twilight. Then close at hand came a soft quick call, and we saw the silhouettes of a pair of nightjars. Their long wings rose and fell as they encircled us. The reason was a fledgling on the path a few metres ahead, its eye gleaming in the torch light. The parents circled us even faster, like in a playground game, clapping their wings. As we approached, the bird on the path silently flew off.” Read

PS Thanks to Mónica for photo of boar.

In the city of Guadalajara, Castilla La Mancha the exhibition is open to the public from 11.00 – 14.00, Monday to Friday in the Teatro Auditorio “Buero Vallejo”, Calle Cifuentes, 30.

In Asturias, the larger of the two exhibitions can be visited in the town of Belmonte de Miranda from 11.00 – 14.00 and from 16.00 – 20.00, every day.

As part of the Spanish ornithological society SEO/Birdlife’s campaign, El Sonido del Bosque (Sounds of the Forests), work-camps will begin this August to improve the habitat of the Cantabrian Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus cantábricus) in the Picos de Europa National Park. Working through to mid-December while the birds are at their most inactive, they hope to help promote the growth of berry-bearing plants and, at the same time, identify the Capercaillie population within the areas where the field-work will be concentrated. The last censuses of the remaining main populations centred in Asturias and León were carried out in 2001 and 1998-2000 respectively and gave a figure of about 400 individuals in total. SEO/Birdlife give a figure of 500, which supposedly takes into account the numbers of Capercaillie in the subspecies’ other habitats of Galicia and Cantabria, a number strongly refuted by the Asturian ornithological society, the Coordinadora Ornitolóxica d’Asturies, who say the total population must now be only about half that number.

Photo by Scott Sonnenberg (wikipedia)

In recent weeks the presence of Portuguese man o’war (Sp. carabela portuguesa- Physalia phisalis) has been detected at various points on the coasts of Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country. Several people have been stung in beaches in Guipúzcoa (Ondarreta and Zarautz) and in Cantabria (Isla) although nobody has yet been seriously injured. Four years ago, the massive presence of the species forced the closure of several beaches in Asturias. Experts believe that the rise in the temperature of the Cantabrian Sea due to climate change has brought the Portuguese man o’war here with warmer waters. The cooler waters of Galicia have so far been free of the threat. El País. The purple Man-o-war is not a true jellyfish, but a colony of hydrozoan polyps. It can in extreme cases provoke a cardiac arrest and death in particularly sensitive persons.

Note the English and Spanish etymology comes from the creature’s air bladder, which looks similar to the triangular sails of the Portuguese ship (man-of-war) Caravela latina (two- or three-masted lateen-rigged ship caravel), of the 15th and 16th centuries. See Wikipedia

See also: Sharks, weaver fish, jellyfish and other dangerous animals in the seas around Spain

News from lne.es

News from lne.es

More on Spain’s bears on the forum

A couple on holiday from Madrid found an injured bear cub by the side of the road near Villarín, Somiedo this Thursday afternoon, 26th of June. Disorientated, she was wandering from one side of the road to the other. After waiting a while to see if the mother would appear, the couple took her to the police station in Somiedo where the Guardia Civil contacted agents from the Natural Park to take charge of her. The 5-6 month old cub, who weighs 4 kilos, was examined by vets and found to have received a blow to the right-hand side of her head but otherwise appeared to be healthy so the decision was taken to try and put her back into the area where she was found, with help from personnel from Fapas and the Fundación Oso Pardo. Three attempts were made but each time the cub returned to the road. On the fourth attempt, the cub was taken further into the mountains but didn’t get out of the container she was transported in and stayed the night in it. First thing Friday morning her health had deteriorated so she was taken to a veterinary clinic in Oviedo where she was put on a drip in an incubator. Providing she recovers from the severe head injury sustained, the authorities are determined to reintroduce her into the wild and a search is on for the two female Cantabrian brown bears known to be in the same area, one of which has three cubs and the other just one. If all goes well, she’ll be tagged on release.

News from La Nueva España

Follow the Cantabrian brown bears on Iberianature forum

Update on the bear cub - After being moved to the Cabárceno safari park in Cantabria for a few weeks, where it was felt she would be better able to receive the correct treatment, the cub has now been moved again. This time, a step nearer home, to the brand new breeding centre for Capercaillie in Sobrescobio, Asturias. In the peace of this new temporary home, it is hoped that she will continue her recovery with even less human contact and the opportunity to forage for her natural food, hopefully leading to her eventual reintroduction into the mountains of Asturias.

Unlike northern Europe where most yew woods were felled, northern Spain is still home to a few remarkable patches of yew forest, the biggest of which (and the largest yew forest in Europe), is in the Sierra de Sueve in Asturias. After years of campaigns, it is now finally to be protected. The wood covers 80 hectares and is home to a remarkable 8,000 yew trees, many of which are more than 1000 years old. La Crónica Verde

Medieval Spain exported much yew wood to Northern Europe which was in demand for boat and longbow manufacture. Iberian yew wood had less knots in it than northern yews because climatic conditions and was highly valued.

A poison from yew was used by the ancient Cantabrians and Celts as a poison to prevent their capture at the hands of enemies. As in much of the world the yew was venerated as a sacred tree and formed part of rituals, no doubt much of which was due to the yew’s extreme longevity. A vestige of this is the common presence of ancient yews growing in churchyards in Galicia and Asturias. Testament to the once more common presence of yew woods is the plethora of placenames – Tejeda/Tejedal/Teixadal – meaning yew wood.

See also Yews in Spain

News from El Diario de León.

Read all about the San Glorio bears on the forum.

Watch a video of two young Cantabrian brown bears on elmundo.es.

See the Cantabrian brown bear topic at Iberianature forum.

Doubtless, they also visited Paca and Tola with their new, hopeful mate Furaco.

News from lne.es

Follow the Cantabrian brown bear on IberiaNature forum

Naturetrek deny they cause the bears any disturbance, a spokesman stating that their tours look for bears at a distance using public footpaths, though they don’t guarantee sightings. The Asturian tourist board and ecologist groups are of the opinion that this kind of tourism is endangering the growth and survival of the precarious Cantabrian brown bear population. However, bear specialist organisations and the mayor of Somiedo all envisage a future of guided and regulated wildlife-watching tours contributing to the local economy without disturbing the bears. A delicate balance.

 lne.es

Aragonese dinosaur hominid and maño by adoption and inclination, Rupert Glasgow has kindly sent me the latest update on Spanish dinosaurs from aragosaurus, this time news of Plesiosaur fossils on the coast of Asturias.

The latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (March, 2008) features a paper entitled “A Juvenile Plesiosaur from the Pliensbachian (Lower Jurassic) of Asturias, Spain”.

Plesiosaurs were marine reptiles that flourished through much of the Mesozoic Era, from the Upper Triassic to the Cretaceous. Along with the ichthyosaurs and the pliosaurs, they were classic “sea-monsters” or “sea-serpents” from the age of dinosaurs. Famously described as “a snake threaded through the body of a turtle”, or as resembling some strange cross between a lizard, a crocodile and a turtle, they combined barrel-like bodies, four flippers and a mouthful of sharp teeth: they were powerful and highly successful predators. Later forms from the Cretaceous reached lengths of 15 metres and had exceedingly long necks. Among cryptozoologists, the plesiosaur has traditionally been one of the favourite candidates as a possible Loch Ness Monster.

According to the authors of the paper, the size of the specimen found in Asturias suggests that it was an immature individual with an estimated body length of 1.8 metres. The fossil remains include eight vertebral centra, seven neural arches and sixteen ribs, which were recovered at the foot of the Santa Mera sea-cliffs, near Villaviciosa. They are currently on display in the Jurassic Museum of Asturias (MUJA).

The bones are excellently preserved, yet as the incomplete nature of the specimen makes precise identification impossible, the authors assign it to indeterminate Plesiosauroidea. It is the most complete plesiosaur yet found in Spain, one of the few specimens of young plesiosaur worldwide, and also one of the few specimens of plesiosaur dating from the Pliensbachian, some 183-89 million years ago.

For more information: see www.aragosaurus.com (Noticias, 19 April 2008)

According to the newspaper, La Voz de Galicia, there is hope among conservationists (and conservation-minded locals) that the bears will begin to recolonise parts of Galicia.

Comment on this article on the forum

Photo from Fapas

Posted by Lisa

Bears trashing hives in the Valle del Trubia (Fapas)

The number of bears identified in the Trubia valley in Asturias, from Quirós towards Oviedo, has doubled from eight in 2006 to sixteen in 2007. At least three breeding females have been identified who appear to be having few problems raising their cubs, leading to a lower infant mortality rate in this area than in other parts of the Cantabrian mountain chain. An abundance of food in the lower wooded valleys for these opportunistic animals, combined with recent mild winters, have contributed to this success. From Fapas.

(More wild neighbours for the semi-captive female Cantabrian brown bears in the same valley, Paca and Tola, who are presently awaiting a suitor in their new enclosure in Proaza in a plan to test their fertility with a captive male European brown bear from the Cabárceno safari park in neighbouring Cantabria previous to finding a suitable wild, male Cantabrian brown bear.)

By Lisa

Or watch the video full size here

I am at present unsure as to whether the dead livestock is to be collected in special areas only for carrion birds, or whether, mammals such as brown bears will also be able to benefit. Attacks by bears on fruit trees and beehives have increased dramatically since the ban as carrion forms an essential part of their diet.

Below a bear in Somiedo tucks into a mule (?), exempt from the Mad Cow rule. (Fapas)

See also archive on BSE and wildlife in Spain

Photo of Tola and additional research by Lisa of picos-accommodation

The Fundación Oso de Asturias plan to mate them with a another male bear used to captivity in spring 2008, when they come into heat after hibernation. (LNE) The problem is that there is currently no captive male Cantabrian bear, so a bear from another “group” is probably to be used. I use the term “group” as the extistence of Ursus arctos Cantabricus as a separate sub-species is under debate.

The two bears live in a 5000m2 mountainside enclosure and have become a popular tourist attraction and have played a very important role in raising environmental awareness about bears in Asturias. Watch them here . There are references to bears almost every week in the local press and people love talking about them. One has the impression that bears in general and Paca and Tola specifically are quasi-nationalist symbols in Asturias, and much loved…unlike wolves.

Most of the time you can’t see them as their hidden in the rocks, scrub and trees, but they come down at 12:00 am every day to eat. I saw both Paca and Tola taking a bath this August as we all watched on, sweltering outside their enclosuse. The enclosure is in the beautiful Concejo de Trubia. Paca at the end of an excellent cycle path which runs along an old mining railtrack, known as La Senda del Oso. The path (or rather network of paths) runs through tunnels, across bridges and through a spectacular gorge. Reasonably-priced cycle hire is available at each end. They’ve also got cycle with back seats for little kids which is what we used. More here

Read the forum thread on Paca and Tola here

I also enjoyed the introduction from the same climbing guide:

“It is important to understand what Naranjo de Bulnes means to Spanish Mountaineers. It is our most precious jewel, and the most wanted summit. Every single Spanish mountaineer dreams on the possibility of looking from its summit. The beauty of this mountain is not only in what you look at, is has to do more with the magic of it. When you feel it you understand. It is very difficult to express in words how people feel about it. And all this does not means it has an easy way to reach its top, because it has not. Rock climbing technics and gear is necesary, even in the easiest route on the south face. There are about 70 routes on the mountain, and only a few of them are relalatively easy; the rest are long, difficult and exposed.”

Long, difficult and exposed it may be, but all Spanish climbers are in still awe of the peak’s first ascent. The first to conquer Picu Urriellu was Pedro Pidal, the Marques of Villaviciosa, in the summer of 1904, at a time when the contemporary fashion of the sport added a certain charm to the life of an aristocrat. He was accompanied by Gregorio Pérez acting as a guide, a shepherd from the village of Cain, who was known as ‘El Cainejo’. The gear of the two climbers was made up of a haversack with something to eat and a couple of ropes … The Marques wore gaiters and hunting boots and El Cainejo, espadrilles. One is reminded of the colonial relationship of Sherpa Tenzing and Edmund Hillary. El Cainejo in his espadrilles accompanies the Marques in his boots. Read Naranjo de Bulnes and the beginnings of Spanish conservationism

“CANTABRIAN brown bears have developed a slightly different genetic identity to other brown bears, including the European. This is due to the geography of the Iberian peninsula effectively cutting them off from other populations to the North. However, they have not been recognised by the scientific community as a distinct subspecies, being referred to as simply Ursus arctos. Read 

Lisa runs this rather nice guesthouse in the Picos. Go there and discuss bears over breakast with her. Photo of Cantabrian bear nabbed from here site.

The house lies between the picturesque hamlets of San Román and Villa, the latter with a great bar. The countryside is idyllic with rolling hills, green fields and lovely villages each with their quota of hórreos, and there are wonderful views of the Sierra de Sueve. The blight of eucalyptus is almost absent.