Oso pardo

[SueMac]

Hi
I decided to send my petition in English with an added script about my reasons. I hope it wont be like a 'spoiled' paper!
SueMac

[lisa]

A tear is rolling down my cheek - Franska, the female bear accused of having killed 150 sheep in the Pyrenees, was killed in a road "accident"" near Lourdes last Thursday (9th) at 6.30am. Her search for territory has ended. Photo below from Fapas.
Environment news from consumer.es regards the death as suspicious. Had she been regularly crossing the road at that point I wonder?
Of the five Slovenian bears reintroduced to the Pyrenees, there are now three remaining. Another female was found dead at the foot of a cliff not long after being released.
Accused by some Pyrenean farmers (probably the same ones that refuse to protect their flocks) as being menopausal, Franska was only six years old. Female bears reach sexual reproductive maturity at about the age of four.
Pays de L'Ours, or País de los Osos, are asking for another two bears to be released to replace the two found dead.

   

[Clive]

Hola,

It's not nice to find any animal killed on a road especially when one is part of a re introduction scheme.

I do wonder though about the logic of bringing in bears from another part of Europe. It makes me think that the new bears will act as they did in their own country and attack / feed on sheep when and if they can. Also the question of hibernation. Does it not get a lot colder in their home country than in the north of Spain which may be a reason why they don't feel like hibernating...

Also if the Cantabrian bear breeds with the Slovenian bear then the offspring are hybrids.. (Although the scientific world hasn't decided yet if the Cantabrian bear should be separated) ... However they did  separate the Iberian lynx because it was cut off from other European lynx).

Is there a site that explains the arguments for and against importing the bears in this manner?

Thanks for keeping us informed Lisa...

Clive

[lisa]

It's starting to make me wonder too Clive. Yesterday I found a petition against the re-introduction of more bears because there is no guarantee of their surviving, but how can anyone guarantee that?
I think the Pyrenean brown bear is more closely related to the Slovenian than the Cantabrian is -going to check this out in a minute, good job Nick's not here. Re-introduction is the only hope for the Pyrenean bears.
Cantabrian bears are the ones that have not been hibernating recently, and have never been to Slovenia in their lives  This being due to climate change probably means that it's likely to happen elsewhere too though.

[lisa]

Sorry, I forgot the link Pays de l'Ours, les réintroductions Hope your French isn't as rusty as mine 

[lisa]

Hi again Clive and anyone else bearing (oh no  ) with me on this. Bears, as in any other species, if isolated will develope in different ways in order to survive, and become genetically different to others (possibly eventually becoming a sub-species?) Here's a quote from the Plan para la Recuperación del Oso Pardo;

"Los osos de la Península Ibérica son los únicos representantes puros de una de las tres líneas evolutivas del oso pardo en Europa. Tienen características genéticas únicas que contribuyen sustancialmente a la diversidad genética de la especie, y son la unidad evolutiva más amenazada y la que exige mayores esfuerzos de protección para preservar una parte importante de esa diversidad genética........
Además, el aislamiento entre las dos poblaciones debe ser considerado un serio problema de conservación. Cada una de ellas presenta caracteres genéticos propios y una problemática distinta desde el punto de vista genético, que sugiere que sean manejadas como dos unidades de conservación diferenciadas."

These are the bears now left in Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla y León and Galicia. Though it says the Iberian peninsula, there's no mention of the Pyrenean (Pyrenaicus?) bears. I haven't read anything about joining the Cantabrian populations with the bears in the Pyrenees - regional governmental complications? You'd think it would be possible to take a couple from the Cordillera and re-introduce them to the Pyrenees instead of taking them from Slovenia. The distinct conservation plans are just that, distinct, and there seem to be no concerted efforts. Why?
Need Nick here 

[lisa]

Re my last comment - just thinking aloud really, of course there aren't enough bears yet in the Cordillera Cantábrica to be able to afford to let a couple go to the Pyrenees, but still, maybe in the future......

Sadly, another dead bear from elmundo.es;
A dead bear has been found in a field in the Palentine area of the Cordillera (we were driving in the area yesterday) and tests are being carried out to try and establish the cause. As the photo shows, much of the corpse has been eaten by other animals. The bear was about 20 years old so it could have died of natural causes (on open ground??) although in the last few years, 9 bears have been found dead in this area; 6 poisoned, 2 shot and one cause of death unknown. Possibly, cubs could be added to this list affected by the death of mothers.

"El cadáver del plantígrado fue localizado el sábado por un pastor en el paraje Chozo de Emilio del municipio de Polentinos (Palencia). Enseguida se personó en el lugar una patrulla de la Fundación Oso Pardo y su presidente, Guillermo Palomero, quien explicaba ayer a EL MUNDO que el animal llevaba muerto dos o tres semanas. "Vimos que era un animal viejo, de más de 20 años. Su esqueleto estaba fragmentado. Se recogió en bolsas y la Junta de Castilla-León se hará cargo de la necropsia para determinar la causa de la muerte y si hubo o no intervención humana", explicaba ayer por teléfono.

Según sus datos, en los últimos años han aparecido nueve osos adultos muertos en esta zona montañosa: seis por veneno, dos tiroteados y uno por causa desconocida. Sólo en el Parque Natural de Fuentes Carrionas han encontrado a cuatro, y tres de ellos en Polentinos, como precisa la Plataforma de Defensa de la Cordillera Cantábrica en un comunicado. A ellos hay que sumar varios oseznos."

[lisa]

Some good news from Fapas though  They've started a new project, POTREROS EN LA MONTAÑA PALENTINA working alongside farmers, in helping to build corrals/enclosures for livestock in an effort to preserve traditional farming in the Cordillera and so helping in the conservation of wild animals such as bears and wolves that need the carrion provided by them aswell as the wild fruits and nuts that will only be around if farmers can continue practising their old methods of land management.

[lucy]

Hi Lisa, and everyone.  Another small but encouraging story: I’ve just come back from the Babia area (where Leon meets Asturias - my favourite place in Spain) and while out one day we found a gathering of Asturian ganaderos who’d organized a small (but very liquid, judging by quantity of bottles cooling off in the river) feast near the head of a valley we were walking up.  On our way down, the sky down-valley had turned a very threatening black and the party was packing up.  We were rescued from a protracted soaking by a young Asturian in a battered land rover, who was very happy to be carrying on the family cowherding business, despite the long hours, lack of holidays etc, as it allowed him to be out in the mountains and not stuck in an office.  He also explained he was collaborating with Fapas, planting fruit-bearing bushes for bears.  This seemed brilliant to me – a change from the image of angry locals unhappy with conservationist practices.  (I’d read in the local paper an interview with a member of the Castilla y Leon government bitterly complaining about the aggressive ecologists from “outside” trying to stop their San Glorio project.)

[Technopat]

Greetings Lucy,
Thanx for that sharing that edifying example.
Regs.,
Technopat

[lisa]

Yes, thanks for that cheering news Lucy. The Fundacion para la Conservacion del Quebrantahuesos (FCQ) are also encouraging involvement of farmers in their conservation efforts, it's good to hear positive feedback.

[Simon]

Hi Lisa et al,

I've a very sad postscipt to the story of Franksa, the re-introduced bear found dead on a French roadsie. I was only half watching the Catalan news when I caught the end of an update, it seemed that an autopsy revealed that franksa could have been shot first. i.e. that her body was then moved and dumped after an illegal hunt and siguised as an accident!

Needless to say, this makes my blood boil.

Simon 

[lisa]

Thankyou Simon. I've found this from the Diario de Navarra where they say dozens of small calibre gun shot pellets were found in her body during the autopsy dating from weeks before. Her death was caused, however, by two vehicles. The poor thing must have been suffering. The autopsy also revealed her age as being 17 and not 7 as the Slovenian authorities had stated.
"El análisis posterior a la muerte ha confirmado también la tesis de quienes afirmaban que el animal era mucho mayor de lo que habían dicho las autoridades eslovenas: tenía 17 años y no siete, como aseguraron. Finalmente, fueron las heridas producidas por el atropello de dos vehículos las que acabaron con su vida, aunque el cuerpo alojaba decenas de perdigones de pequeño calibre, que revelan que fue tiroteada semanas antes. Franska llegó junto a Paluma, que murió de un disparo considerado entonces accidental."
I hope they throw the book at the culprits.

[Sue]

Hi All,
would this bear have been able to breed at the age of 17?

If not all that money/effort has gained nothing -not to mention the bad publicity, as she was accused of attacking sheep.
The next step perhaps needs closer scrutiny if it is not to waste resources.

Regards, Sue

[lisa]

I think probably not but bears can live to about 25 in the wild so it may have been possible. But yes, I'm sure the conservationists in charge of the re-introduction programme are having a good re-think about their methods.

[lisa]

Hi All,
I've just been checking out the reactions to the latest news of Franska's "accidental" death in the Pyrenees. Her bullet-ridden body is being blamed for her erratic behaviour (farmers blame her for the death of 150 sheep in a couple of months  ) but I can't find any mention of her discovered true age.
Am going to brush up my French language north of Spanish border to see if I can get some sig's on the petition 

[nick]

There are now only two aging Pyrenean bears left - both male and both living in the Atlantic Pyrenees (Navarra and whatever its called over the border). all the rest are reintroduced. As far as I know, it is thought that there are not yet enough bears in the Cantabrian mountains to allow transfers to the Pyrenees.

The very nice woman whose house (more about this soon) we rented in Sierra de Sueve, Asturias keeps her cows in the summer over in Leon. She told me one of her young cows had been killed a few years ago by a bear and that she had received full though somewhat late compensation. She wasn't in the slightest resentful and proudly told me about the bear signs in the field in Leon they'd seen last week and how a neighbour had chanced upon a bear with cubs at the start of the summer and had been so frightened she hadn't gone out for a week. I asked her leading questions to get her to criticise bears, but she wouldn't even say anything bad about wolves - mind you she has cows not sheep and cows can defend themselves.

I must say in my very limited experience I am impressed by the level of knowledge and interest in natural history and its protection in Asturias. Testament is the existence of an organization likes Fapas and the presence of wildlife articles in the local press. Lisa? Am I being naive? What about in Cantabria? They seem less sympathetic over there. Am I wrong?

[lisa]

Hi Nick, you're right. The Asturian authorities seem to have a more enlightened approach to their tourism marketing and use their natural resources (including the presence of bears) as an attraction to the area. I'm afraid Cantabria and Castilla León don't share this foresightedness...yet.

[nick]

Confirmed that the dead Palencia bear was poisoned

http://www.fapas.es/notifapas/2007/20070830_oso_polentinos_envenenado.htm

[nick]

I love this video I've just been sent.
http://www.iberianature.com/spainblog/2007/09/04/the-tale-of-the-bears-paw/

Claire, who sent it me, may be joining the forum soon.