Farmers’ alarm at rewilding of Pyrenees bears

A RECORD number of bears were born in the Pyrenees mountains last year, pushing the population back from the brink of extinction – and angering farmers.

The bear population in the mountains separating France and Spain grew to 64 in 2020, including 16 cubs, according to animal rights activists.

“It ’s a record – never before have nine litters been detected in the Pyrenees since we started studying the bear population,” the Pays de l’Ours and Adet et Ferus associations said on Thursday.

Yet farmers have made no effort to hide their dismay at the rewilding of bears as they also face a growing threat of wolves and reintroduced lynx. Sheep have jumped off cliffs and fallen to their deaths to escape the bears, and hundreds have been killed, they claim.

Farmers are joining in protests and complain about government compensation for their ransacked livestock.

Conservationists claim the situation is improving. Suspected bear attacks fell to 369 last year, with 636 animals injured or killed, compared with 1,200 in 2019.

At least 150 brown bears inhabited the mountains in the 20th century, but by the 1990s, the population was on the edge of extinction after decades of hunting.

Two females, Ziva and Melba, were reintroduced in 1996 and joined by a male the following year. In 2020, 64 bears were counted, up from 58 the year before.

Conservationists and farmers have long been at loggerheads over campaigns to bolster both bears and Iberian lynx, particularly in the north of Spain, which is known for its extensive sheep farming.

Spanish farmers have condemned the government’s recent move to declare the Iberian wolf a protected species, warning a nationwide hunting ban will devastate their livestock.

The environment ministry plans to categorise the wolves as an endangered species, extending the protections afforded to them in the south to the north west, where controlled hunting is permitted.

Agricultural unions claim a rebound of the species has increased attacks on cattle and is a sign of things to come.

“It is we livestock farmers who are in danger of extinction,” a statement from the Union of Small Farmers and Cattle Ranchers said.