Archive for the ‘Pyrenees’ Category
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
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.
Tags: Bear hunting in the Pyrenees, Bears in Aragon, Historie de l’ours dans les Pyrénées, Pyrenean bears
Posted in bears, history, Pyrenees | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Without further reintroductions, the low number of bears in the Pyrenees (15-20 odd) make the conservation of the species inviable. For the time being, the French government has no plans to continue its reintroduction plans. Public support for bears in Catalonia is as high as 80%, but strong local opposition particularly in the Vall de Aran prevents any reintroduction programme from this side of the mountain range.
Fapas from La Mañana de Llerida
Tags: Bears in Aragon, Bears in Catalonia, Pyrenean bears, wildlife of the Pyrenees
Posted in bears, Catalonia, Pyrenees | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
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
Tags: Hvala, Vall d'Arán, Vall d’Aran
Posted in bears, Catalonia, Mammals, On Spain, Pyrenees | No Comments »
Sunday, April 5th, 2009
Hvala, the bear who bit a hunter last year in the Vall d’Arán, has woken from her winter slumber. She was probably pregnant when she went into hibernation and the biologists monitoring her suspect she may have a cub or two, as she is staying in the same area (Bossòst, Vall d’Arán). Let us hope she is left in peace to raise them.
El Periodico
Tags: Bossòst, Hvala, Vall d'Arán, Vall d’Aran
Posted in bears, Catalonia, Mammals, On Spain, Pyrenees | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
Another study has highlighted the likely disappearance of the glaciers in the Pyrenees in the next 40-50 years.
Since the first study by French geographer Franz Schrader in 1894, the Pyrenean glaciers have lost 88 percent of their 1,779-hectare surface area, according to a report by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment. Low rainfall and the rise in temperatures is leading to their rapid melting, and it is estimated that by the middle of the century, they will have vanished altogether. This has accelerated in recent years with the glaciers losing 72 hectares between 2002 and 2008. One of the most striking examples is that of La Madaleta glacier, one of the largest in the Pyrenees, whose thickness has shrunk by 180 metres since 1991 at an average rate of 11 metes a year. The absence of snowfall in summer in recent years has exacerbated this regression. Lower snowfall is also likely to spell long-ter, disaster for the skiing industry.
See also:
Tags: Franz Schrader, La Madaleta glacier
Posted in Aragon, Aragonese Pyrenees, Climate, climate change, Pyrenees | No Comments »
Monday, February 9th, 2009
Simon chanced upon this beautiful otter in the Catalan Pyrenees.
There could hardly seem a less promising place to go naturalising than the stretch of the Noguera Pallaresa just downstream from Tremp, ‘capital’ of the Pallars Jussà comarca in the Catalan pre-Pyrenees.
Read on iberianture
Posted in Catalonia, Mammals, On Spain, Otters in Spain, Pyrenees | No Comments »
Monday, November 3rd, 2008
If you’d like to show your support for the bear, Hvala, currently being persecuted in the Pyrenees (see previous post), there is now a petition in Catalan that can be signed. Click on “Signas per l’ossa” (nom = first name, cognom = surname).
sosossospirineu.org
Tags: Hvala, petition, Pyrenees
Posted in bears, Catalonia, Mammals, Pyrenees | No Comments »
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
Two Eurasian lynxes (Lynx lynx) have been acquired by Les Planes de Son (Pallars Sobirà) run by Territori i Paisatge. The director of Territori i Paisatge Jordi Sargatal made it clear that these lynxes will not be released but does not rule out a release of their offspring. There is however still much work to be done before any reintroduction. Sargatal noted “A viability plan needs to be drawn up a consensus reaached”…but “We all need to understand that reintroducing the Eurasian lynx would be very positive for the ecosystem and for the economy”, noting that “the lynx is at the top of the ecosystem and plays a very important role of predation on the smaller predators such as foxes, wild cats and genets, which would have a positive effect on other species in the area”. There were Eurasian lynx in the Pyrenees until a few decades ago, possibly more recently, and the species may have also lived in the Cordillera Cantábrica.
Tags: Eurasian lynx, Jordi Sargatal, Les Planes de Son, Pallars Sobirà, Territori i Paisatge
Posted in Catalonia, Iberian lynx, Mammals, On Spain, Pyrenees | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
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.
Tags: bear attacks, hunters killed by other hunters, Hvala, Vall d'Arán
Posted in bears, Catalonia, hunting in Spain, Mammals, Pyrenees | No Comments »
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
Monte Perdido, the Lost Mountain, (3355m) is the third highest peak in the Pyrenees but until the early 19th century it was thought that to be the highest. It does, however, boast the highest waterfall (400m) in Europe and the second largest glacier in the Pyrenees. The mountain is home to many legends, perhaps the most evocative of which is this one:
A palace was built at the beginning of time by the mythical Enchanter of the Peaks, Atland, who put a spell on the palace so that only certain people could enter it. Polished walls and towers protected it and hid behind them vast gardens and meadows that were like an earthly paradise. The palace is still bound by Atland’s spell and can only be entered if you are riding on the back of a flying horse. More legends from Aragon
Tags: Atland, highest waterfall in Europe, legends of Aragon, Monte Perdido, Pyrenees legends
Posted in Aragon, Aragonese Pyrenees, folklore, Geography, Mountains, Pyrenees | No Comments »
Sunday, September 21st, 2008
Lucy has posted on her iberianature blog this fantastic series of five trip reports on her recent trip to Aiguestortes in the Catalan Pyrenees. Enjoy.
The renewed silence was broken by a piercing whistle, as if a referee had just stopped play. The first time I ever heard a marmot’s warning call, I was sure it was a bird. One tone warns of raptors and another of danger on the ground. The Pyrenean marmots didn’t survive the last ice age, but were re-introduced in 1948, and have been burrowing there extensively ever since. They are Europe’s largest and perhaps shaggiest rodents, preferring to stay underground on hot days, as well as hibernating throughout winter. This upright marmot was on lookout duty. Read
Tags: Aiguestortes
Posted in Catalonia, Pyrenees, trip reports | No Comments »
Monday, July 14th, 2008
Check out this short but rather good video of Hvala tucking into a roe deer corpse, left in front of a bear cam by the Vall d’Arán authorities. Hvala was one of the bears released into the Pyrenees from Slovenia six years ago. The Vall d’Arán have contracted the services of a shepherd this year to gather together and protect the flocks of sheep of 17 farmers.
Tags: Hvala, Vall d'Arán
Posted in bears, Catalonia, On Spain, Pyrenees | 1 Comment »
Sunday, May 18th, 2008
Photo El País
Another update on brown bears in the Pyrenees. The population of bears in the range has “stabilised” at 20 individuals, of which only two (old) males and one cub belong to the autocthonous “group of Pyrenean bears. The remaining bears are those introduced from Eastern Europe in 1996, 1997 and 2006, or are cubs of these animals.
In Catalonia, in the last year at least 12 bears have been recorded passing some time here, and as some of these are now cubs, we can now begin to talk about a second generation growing up since the reintroductions began. A sign of the increased activity of bears is the first recording of a bear In the Vall d’Arán for a number of years. Watch the video of a female bear being followed by a male here. Both have recently awoken from hibernation.
The latest DNA evidence suggests that the genetic difference between Spanish bears and those from the rest of Europe is small, and therefore there should be no reason to oppose transfers from other areas on biological grounds. See Wikipedia for more on links on this. In 2007, brown bears in the Catalan Pyrenees killed 20 sheep, 1 cow and 1 horse, which the Catalan Government compensated to a tune of 6,640 euros. A small price to pay. See pirineos.com
See also Pyrenean bear news
Tags: Catalan Pyrenees, Pyrenean bears, Vall d'Arán
Posted in Aragonese Pyrenees, bears, Catalonia, Pyrenees | 1 Comment »
