French farmers battle back in bid to re-introduce bears

PARIS — A bitter dispute over the re-introduction of bears in the French Pyrenees intensified this week as sheep farmers opposed conservationists’ calls for new females to mate with two lonely male bears.

Bears were re-introduced from Slovenia in the 1990s after hunters all but wiped out France’s native population and the lovelorn males, Canellito and Nere, are the only ones left in the western Pyrenees.

Another 37 have been counted in the central section of the mountain range along the Spanish border. But conservationists say the two isolated males are unlikely to reach the group and would have to fight dominant males before being able to mate with the females.

The presence of bears in France arouses such strong feelings that farmers allegedly fired warning shots over the heads of government experts sent last year to assess how many sheep the predators had killed.

Environmentalists are equally passionate about ensuring the bears’ survival, arguing that they are a native species and should be preserved.

Alain Reynes, head of a group lobbying the government to bring in females from Slovenia in time for spring, when bears come out of hibernation, said: “This is now a matter of extreme urgency.

“With only two males left in the west of the range, the species could disappear at any time.”

But sheep farmers and beekeepers say bears threaten their livelihoods.