Paris, A scheme to reintroduce brown bears to the Pyrenees; mountain range in Europe, is showing signs of success, with 70 individuals identified in 2021, the highest number for a century.
The population has increased from 52 in 2018, according to figures produced by the cross-border group that monitors the bears in France and Spain, with half the creatures living in the Catalan Pyrenean regions of Vall d’Aran, Pallars Sobirà and Alta Ribagorça. Overall, the population is thinly spread over an area of 6,500 sq km.
The study identified 34 females, 32 males and four others whose gender was not determined, with 15 pups born over the course of last year. There have been a 114 newborns since the scheme was launched in 1996.
The brown bear was near extinct in the Pyrenees when three bears from Slovenia were introduced 26 years ago. The last native specimen was shot in 2004 and two years later four females were introduced, also from Slovenia.
The repopulation scheme was opposed by farmers from the start, even though brown bears’ diet is largely vegetarian and they rarely kill for food.
The EU-backed Franco-Spanish LoupO project was established in 2020 to coordinate the monitoring of the brown bear and wolf populations in the Pyrenees, the British Guardian newspaper reported.
Source: Oman News Agency