Rather wonderful cave painting from Ekain in the Basque County of two bears. They apparantly represent brown not cave bears. They date from 14,500-10,000 years ago.

More in English and how to visit a nearby replica here. Pictures from here.

It appears that Camille, the last autochthonous Pyrenean bear, may have died, after 9 months without any sign of him. His death at the age of 20 comes as no surprise but is a sad symbol of the disappearance of bears in the range.  Now the hope lies in the 20 or so bears which have introduced (or born of introduced animals) in the Pyrenees by the French government from Slovenia. In the photo Camille sits next to the tasty feast of a dead wild boar, somewhere in the Navarran Pyrenees. 20 minutos

This article from Wildlife Extra is also interesting. New research suggests Cantabrian female brown bears do not hibernate while cubs are still young proves anecdotal evidence first recorded many centuries ago.

Bears in the Pyrenees have had their best breeding year for decades this year with two females raisning two cubs each, in territories between Vall d’Aran and y los departamentos franceses de Ariège y Alto Garona. El Periódico

“Voila! Hvala!” exclaims Pierre-Yves Quenette, standing in a snowy clearing in the forests outside of Pyrénées National Park. He’s reading a message on his cell phone. Hvala, a 200-pound brown bear with two cubs, has been found. National Geographic

Apologies to regular readers of iberianature as other commitments have prevented me from updating the blog as much as I should.

Here are a few interesting stories I’ve not had time to report on in April:

Bears, lynx and wolves

• Outlook for bears in the Cantabrian Mountains is optimistic (above photo)
• Book published on bears in the Pyrenees
• Excellent new bear photos here
• FAPAS considers bears to have recovered in Proaza
• Another attempt to get Furaco, Paca and Tola to breed
• Wolf tourism could generate 3 million euros in Zamora
• Fourth birth of captive lynxes at ‘La Olivilla’ centre

Birds

• Mallard fights off black kite in Valladolid
• Dippers under threat from Asturian fishermen

Other stories

• Controversy as to where the source of the Guadalquivir is
• Anniversary of death of José Antonio Valverde, great Spanish naturalist
• Sperm whale found off the coast of Ceuta

I came across this rather harrowing photo in a book review of Historie de l’ours dans les Pyrénées in El Pireneo Digital. It was taken in 1928 after a hunt in Urdós, Valle de Aspe across the border in France. In 1935, some 200 bears still survived in the Pyrenees and Pre-Pyrenees. The last bear steak was offered in restaurant in French Pyrenees in 1960. A ban on hunting came in Spain in 1967  and in France several years later. Today, with just 20 odd animals in the entire Pyrenees – most of which were brought from the Balkans, further reintroduction is the only way of re-creating a viable population of bears in the range.

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

Despite all the overblown furore over the bear hunter attack in the Vall d’Aran, the occassional presence of bears is attracting increasing numbers of tourists to the valley.

Read (La Mañana)
Hvala the bear

And according to Fundación Oso Pardo president Guillermo Palomero bears are no more aggressive than wild boars.
Read (also La Mañana)

Hvala, the bear at the centre of the furore last autumn after biting a hunter, has been photographed with two cubs by wardens from the Vall d’Aran. Another bear, Sarousse, which was also released in 2006, may also have cubs, and if so could spell the beginning of a rise in the Pyrenean population.
Pireneodigital

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

See the video here on YouTube

More photos here on eldiariomontanes.es

The symbol of Madrid represented by the bear and the strawberry tree is well known, but here’s a much earlier image showing Iberian bears liking for these arbutus cherries. The bear forms part of a C4th AD mosaic found at Villa Fortunatus in Fraga, Zaragoza, and is part of an agricultural calendar, representing the month of November. It can be seen at the Museo Provincial de Zaragoza. Sadly today, bears in Spain no longer gorge on these fruits in autumn to the extent as they did as they are largely absent from the range of the strawberry tree.

• More here

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

sosossospirineu.org

Following the hysteria surrounding a hunter who was bitten by a bear last week (full story here on iberianature), the Catalan government has decided to study bears in the Pyrenees more closely and are to set up a new group to monitor the bears in the Aran valley to avoid any similar incidences in the future. Fapas have commented and point out that while this is the first incident of its kind in the Pyrenees, hunters are far more likely to suffer injuries (and death) at the hands of other hunters (20 hunters are killed by other hunters a year in Spain.) The bear in question Hvala is currently in France and so is safe for the time being from the attempts by the Aranese authorities to capture her. Ecological organisations are threatening legal action should they be successful. El Mundo

The images above (El Mundo) are the first of Hvala since the incident took place.

• Follow this story on the forum as it unfolds

A young brown bear has been run over and killed in Leon in El Bierzo. This is the first confirmed case of bear being killed by a vehicle (a lorry) in Spain. The incident took place along the A16 dual carriageway (autovia). Experts from the Fundación Oso Pardo (FOP) are trying to find where the bear entered the autovia as it is fenced. According to the Fundación Oso Pardo, although bears are not common in El Bierzo, it is an area of dispersion from the nearby Alto Sil which supports a small but rising breeding population of brown bears, and so the bear was probably from this latter area. This bear formed part of the much smaller eastern population of Cantabrian bears with at most 30 individuals and so the loss of one is of some concern.

• El País
• La Vanguardia

Thankfully the Catalan authorities are seeing sense in this matter and are refusing to listen to the yuppie owners of Vall d’Aran. As Simon on the forum points out the Catalan Minsitry of the Environment should no more take into account the opinions of hotel owners than these should listen to the former’s advice on how to make beds. For me, the underlying problem is the ridiculous amount of local automony and respect afforded to a small area, just because they happen to speak a different language. The Aranese have powers in the environment, while the next valley along which doesn’t happen to speak a different language, doesn’t. This means that they can I think, in effect, legally remove the bear in question. These small number of persons, in many cases greedily linked to the skiing and hotel industry, are going against what by all accounts are the wishes of the majority of people in Catalonia who want to maintain the bear reintroduction programme. It’s a mockery of democracy.

Update 26/10/2008. The Aranese authorities are now searching for the bear Hvala with the objective of shooting it with tranquillising darts and removing it from the wild. They claim this is to avoid a “generalised vendetta” against all bears in the area (El Periodico) Meanwhile, the ecological organisation Depana while lamenting the injuries to the man, lay the blame at poorly organised boar hunts, and note that bears and boar hunting are perfectly compatible when managed properly, citing the example of the Cordillera Cantábrica.

Original story. Bad news for bears in the Pyrenees. A boar hunter in the Vall d’Aran was bitten today by a bear and has suffered minor injuries to his foot and hand. Although this is the first time a human has been attacked by a bear in the Pyrenees since the reintroduction programme began in 1996, it has led to calls from the Aranese government for the removal of all bears from the range, claiming that the “bear reintroduction experiment has failed”. One suspects that the Aranese authorities have been looking any excuse to stop the programme. So far the Catalan government has called for calm. The bear in question is “called” Hvala, the same bear which was filmed last month. New Vote No to reconsidering the reintroduction programme at La Vanguardia below.

• La Vanguardia
• Hvala on video

• See story and video here at El País
• Aran Bear eating roe deer
• Brown bear population in the Pyrenees

The young bear with the trap caught around his abdomen has not been able to be caught and treated. It’s not known whether or not he is still alive.

From La Nueva España.

A team of specialists was mustered on Wednesday to track a bear that had been caught in a snare trap in the Páramo del Síl, Bierzo area of León. The bear had managed to detach the wire snare from a tree where it had been illegally laid but escaped with it still around its middle. The regional governments of Castilla and León, Asturias and Cantabria are collaborating with experts from the Fundación Oso Pardo, the Cabárceno wildlife park and the University of León to try to anaesthetise the injured animal and treat its abdominal wounds although their efforts are being hampered by problems in getting close enough to succesfully dart the bear. The dark colouring of its fur leads the experts to believe the bear to be a male, and definitely young. It has been observed feeding but the team are concerned that the wounds could become infected. The digiscoped image of the bear shows how the snare is embedded around its abdomen, in the area of its kidneys, and highlights the thin state of the animal, who has been suffering now for a week since it was first spotted. The fine for causing the death of a bear ranges from €200,000 – €2,000,000.

News from La Crónica

More on IberiaNature forum

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.

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.

The partially eaten corpse has been taken to an animal recuperation centre in Burgos for an autopsy. It is hoped that the second cub survived the attack.

From terra.es

Discussion on the Cantabrian brown bears at Iberianature forum.