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Articles in ‘Cantabrian mountains’
Good news from Palencia
December 5th, 2009
A “new” reproductive female bear with two cubs has been found in Palencia, part of the beleaguered Eastern Cantabrian bear population. With only 30 odd individuals, this population is in a critical state, with at the last count, only two breeding females. In 2008 three cubs were born to the two females only one of which survived, one having been lost to infanticide and the other dying from unknown causes. This discovery of a third female and her two cubs of this year is raises hope for the bears’ future in this region. From Lisa on PicosdeEuropa and originally from nortecastilla.es. (above photo with bear and cubs). This autumn have may been a good one for Cantabrian bears thanks to the mild conditions and plentiful fruit.
Picos de Europa online
November 26th, 2009The Great Mountain Corridor
November 26th, 2009
The Great Mountain Corridor is an idea to create a vast ecological corridor connecting the Cantabrian Mountains, the Pyrenees and the Alps, and possibly eventually, the Balkans, along which wolves, bears and other animals could roam relatively unhindered.
The GMC is a 1300-kilometre swathe of land connecting the Cantabrian mountains in Spain to the Italian Alps via the Pyrenees and Massif Central in France. It might even be extended into the Carpathian mountains of eastern Europe. “It’s not unrealistic to think that in 20 years there could be a good corridor between the Iberian Peninsula and the Balkans,” says Miquel Rafa of Obra Social Caixa Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, a charitable organisation that is promoting the project. Some of the land in the proposed corridor is already protected, and Rafa’s aim is to fill in the gaps. Over the past decade, his organisation has spent 8 million euro buying 80 square kilometres of land between the Cantabrians and the Pyrenees. He estimates that only another 80 square kilometres is needed to complete that part of the corridor. There are already success stories to report. Last year, a wolf from the Cantabrian mountains was spotted in the Pyrenees, not far from one of many packs that arrived there from the French Alps around 10 years ago – the first wolves in the Pyrenees since the 1930s. These packs made a hazardous crossing of the Rhone valley, parts of which are industrialised. It will be remarkable if groups from the Cantabrians and French Alps meet and breed in the Pyrenees, says Rafa, as the populations have been separated for over 800 years. To win local support, Rafa and colleagues have also provided shepherds with Pyrenean mountain dogs, a muscular breed that will defend livestock against wolves. More here from New Scientist article nabbed here “Megaconservation: Saving wildernesses on a giant scale”
See also Territori i Paisatge here
Cantabrian bear groups rejoined
August 18th, 2009
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.
Increase in brown bear population
July 27th, 2009
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
Cantabrian nature blog
July 15th, 2009
One of my favourite Spanish nature blogs is Zona Osera (Bear Zone) written by Hector Ruiz from the Valle de Laciana, León. Superb photography and great natural history writing.
Illegal hunting ring broken
December 1st, 2008An important illegal hunting ring has been broken in the Cantabrian mountains of Asturias and León where two and six men respectively have been arrested. Various arms were found in their houses along with frozen and dried animal remains. Included among the boar, deer and rebeco (chamois) discoveries were specimens of endangered animals, a European Genet and a Capercaillie, the latter a species threatened with extinction in these mountains. The men were arrested following months of detective work by Seprona, the wildlife protection unit of the Guardia Civíl, and are suspected of charging money for guiding hunts as also found were large amounts of cash and paperwork stamped and ready for the transportation of the “trophies”. Other possible species to be found in the area concerned are Cantabrian brown bear and Iberian wolf. The case is continuing and more arrests are likely.
News from lne.es
Bear cub returned to wild
November 14th, 2008
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
New book on Spain’s bears
November 3rd, 2008While we cross our fingers and hope that Hvala settles into hibernation mode before the Aranese authorities can get their hands on her, a new book has been officially launched. Titled “Osas. El comportamiento de las osas y sus crias en la Cordillera Cantábrica” (Bears. The behaviour of female brown bears and their cubs in the Cantabrian mountain chain), the book is a compilation of information garnered over ten years of study by the Fundación Oso Pardo and is accompanied by an extraordinary dvd with footage of cubs playing and the darker, natural side of bear behaviour, infanticide. Contact Fop or the Fundación Biodiversidad, who financed the project, for your free copy.
Plan to cull 100 wolves in Castilla y León
September 22nd, 2008
A plan to hunt and shoot up to 100 wolves in Castilla y León has angered environmentalists who say the culling is an unnecessary sop to farmers who claim livestock are under attack. The Guardian
See also
- (above photo) Los ecologistas de Castilla y León rechazan que se cacen a 100 lobos esta temporada El Mundo
- 32 wolves to be culled in Leon Diario de León
Connecting Cantabrian brown bears
August 12th, 2008The Fundación Oso Pardo has nearly finished a study to find a communication corridor for the two, at present, separated bear populations. The study has identified problem areas and will propose at least four possible crossing points. It won’t be easy however as the zone to be used, through the Huerna Valley and over the Pajares mountain pass, is criss-crossed by roads and railways, including a dual carriageway and high-speed train linking Asturias with the Spanish central plains, which will have to be bridged. Also in the way are the odd ski resort or two. Deforestation is proving to be another stumbling block in the bears’ passage so they will also be recommending the replanting of trees to provide cover for the animals during their crossing. The study will be handed to the regional governments of Asturias and Castilla and León later this year.
News from elmundo.es
Photo from Mundo de Gea
More on Spain’s bears on the forum
Saving the Cantabrian Capercaillie from extinction
July 22nd, 2008
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.
Cantabrian brown bears and carrion
June 19th, 2008The new digital camaras that Fapas have installed are paying their way. They’ve made a very informative PowerPoint slideshow of a young bear encountering a corpse of a cow (I think). On the first few visits, instead of tucking straight in as you might imagine, the bear concentrates on smelling around the corpse, eventually feeding on the maggots evolving in a hole probably pecked by ravens. Not until a month has passed does it tear apart the skin to reach the flesh that remains. Apparently, maggots and rotten meat provide more protein than fresh.
New, Stricter Protection Laws for the Cantabrian brown bears
June 16th, 2008A new draft of the Plan for the Recuperation of the Cantabrian brown bear (Plan para la Recuperación del Oso pardo Cantabrico) has been sent by the Castilla y León Environment Ministry to all the townhalls covering the affected areas within both the National and Regional Parks of the Picos de Europa, the Natural Park of Fuentes Carrionas y Fuente Cobre-Montaña Palentina as well as in all the areas which have been proven to be of vital importance for the bears such as the valleys Naranco and Lechada. Incorporated in the plan will be the monitoring of any possible communication corridors in order to join the two split bear populations and avoid the fragmentation of habitat. Any recreational activity within the protected area will be prohibited and forestry and agricultural use will be controlled. Hunting will be strictly monitored, being banned completely during critical feeding times (autumn) and in areas where bears are spotted by patrols. These new protection laws will be followed until said controlled areas come up with their own environmental management plans. All of which should effectively ensure the future survival of the Cantabrian brown bear and sound the death knell for the San Glorio ski resort project.
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 rainfall records for Spain keep tumbling. According to the latest provisional figures 
I’ve just come across 
Three Iberian lynxes of the captive breeding programme have died in recent weeks from a renal disease. Lynxes in the wild are thought not to suffer from this disease.