Documentary about bears
March 2nd, 2010
Interesting documentary from TVE about bears in the Cordillera Cantábrica with Guillermo Palomero, President of Fundación Oso Pardo. Watch here
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Articles in ‘videos’
Interesting documentary from TVE about bears in the Cordillera Cantábrica with Guillermo Palomero, President of Fundación Oso Pardo. Watch here
Mongoose video
January 5th, 2010This video of a mongoose (meloncillo) interacting with a wild boar in Doñaña is interesting. Found on Naturablog.
New wolf documentary
September 19th, 2009 Very interesting 24-minute documentary about wolves in Spain here. La huella del lobo looks at the conflicts around wolves in Castilla y León where wolves are being increasingly hunted legally (113 this year will be shot at up to 9,000 euros each). The film does not take sides and gives a voice to hunters, conservationists and politicians. See also the iberianatureforum’s discusssion on this.The disaster of Lake Sanabria
February 10th, 2009
Interesting documentary narrating the tragic events of 9th January 1949 when a dam upstream of Lake Sanabria, the largest in lake in Spain, burst. A wall of water swept down the Tera Valley and engulfed the village of Ribadelago. Around 100 people were killed. The Francoist authorities covered up the report on the defective construction of the dam.
More on Sanabria including contemporary news report by Time Magazine (iberianature) “One night last week all was quiet in Ribadelago. In the tavern men were playing cards. At the church Father Plácido Esteban-Gonzalez had just arrived on his motor scooter from the provincial capital of Zamora. An electrician named Rey was working late in his shop. Shortly after midnight the lights in the village flickered out. At the tavern, irritated cardplayers lit candles, went on with their game. Suddenly, a distant, muffled roar was heard..Read
Wolf hunting in Castilla-Leon
January 26th, 2009Spanish TV’s documentary flagship Informe Semanal showed this documentary last week about the illegal shooting of wolves in Castilla-León where every year as many as 500-600 wolves are killed by hunters, 90′% of which are shot illegally.
The new wolf hunting management plan in Castilla y León is alarming Spanish conservationists. The price for shooting a wolf in Castilla y León is set at 3000 euros. Meanwhile, many more are killied illegally, some of which because of an increasing interest among illegal hunting rings under the tacit protection of the regional government. In most of Castilla-León, wolves enjoy scant support as they are responsible for some 300,000 euros in sheep deaths. This has become much worse with the removal of carrion because of the BSE crisis. Yet, as I have mentioned here many times before the opportunities of wolf tourism as shown in the Sierra de la Culebra, offers a different way forward.
Bear building a den
January 21st, 2009Villarina the young bear which was recently released back in the wild after having been rescued as a cub has been busy recently building a den for herself as can be seen in this nice little video.
See also bear cub returned to wild
Documentary about Spain’s forests
December 10th, 2008I enjoyed this documentary about the biodiversity of the forests of Spain, whose geographical positions means they are the most varied in the whole of Europe. Uploaded by forestman.
Radio debate on wolves
October 11th, 2008Interesting 30-minute radio discussion here from Canal Ser on wolves. Taking part are Carlos de Hita (naturalist and wolf sound recordist), Carlos Sanz (Spanish wolf expert), Rodrigo Peñalosa (cattle farmer affected by wolf attacks in the Sierra de Guadarrama and José Ángel Arranz (Castilla y León government), along with an interview with Andy Tucker (Nature Trek) on wolf tourism. Note: The images of wolves you’ll see have nothing to do with the radio programme.
Catalan bears on video
October 2nd, 2008The Aranese authorities have captured some excellent images of the bear Hvala with her 19-month old cub. It is unsual for a “cub” (no longer so small) to stay with its mother for so long.
- See story and video here at El País
- Aran Bear eating roe deer
- Brown bear population in the Pyrenees
Golden eagle hunting video
October 1st, 2008Here’s an old and spectacular favourite from El Hombre y La Tierra series by Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente. The golden eagle has actually been trained to pull/knock animals off crags. I don’t think it’s fair to be too critical as it follows the standards of nature films of the time, when filming was incredibly expensive and they didn’t have the benefit of today’s remarkable equipment. The scene was filmed in a private estate in Segura y Cazorla. The unfortunate animal is, I believe, a mouflon. The rest, too quick footed for the eagle, are Spanish ibexes (cabras monteses). Read commentary on the forum where it was first posted, and where Clive suggests this behaviour occurs in the wild in Grazalema.
Iberian wolf videos
May 12th, 2008I’ve put together this collection of videos from Google Video and YouTube of documentaries and news items on wolves in Spain. there also a link to a radio programme on wolves from Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente. Enjoy.
Asturian otters on video
February 8th, 2008Busybee of the forum has uploaded this rather nice video of otters feeding and playing in Arriondas, Asturias. The images from the second half (1m:30s) are excellent. Follow the forum thread
Or watch the video full size here
Urban wildlife in Madrid
November 30th, 2007Urban wildlife in Madrid. 30 minutes. Rather good.
Antonio Machado in Soria
November 13th, 2007I loved this documentary about Antonio Machado in Soria shown on Escarabajo Verde last Sunday.
Ian Gibson explains how Machado’s visit to Soria was to have a great impact on the poet’s work. The poems he wrote here were published as “Campos de Castilla”, a collection lyricising the beauty of the Castilian countryside. His first work in Soria expressed the poverty and ruggedness of the region, but his writings were to soften when he met, fell in love and married Leonor Izquierdo, daughter of the owners of the boarding house Machado was staying in. Sadly, Leonor soon fell ill and died from tuberculosis, just a few weeks after the publication of Campos de Castilla. Machado was devastated and left Soria, never to return. He moved to Baeza where he wrote a series of poems dealing with the death of Leonor which were added to a new edition of Campos de Castilla published in 1916 , which now saw the Sorian landscape full of melancholy and sadness. The documentary also mentions the articles Machado wrote for the local press expressing an early environmental concern and denouncing the burning of pinewoods for pasture. (Escarabajo Verde, TVE2 from Forestman)
Fields of Soria (extract)
Hills of silver plate,
grey heights, dark red rocks
through which the Duero bends
its crossbow arc
round Soria, shadowed oaks,
stone dry-lands, naked mountains,
white roads and river poplars,
twilights of Soria, warlike and mystical,
today I feel, for you,
in my hearts depths, sadness,
sadness of love! Fields of Soria,
where it seems the stones have dreams,
you go with me! Hills of silver plate,
grey heights, dark red rocks.
Carlos Sanz and wolves
October 14th, 2007A new TVE documentary on wolves in Spain and on the work of Carlos Sanz, one of principal experts and defenders of wolves in Spain. Click here (link corrected). Thanks to Lisa on the forum for finding this.
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.