Bear of the Pyrenees
The term bear of the Pyrenees designates the population of Brown bear ( Ursus arctos ) alive on the French and Spanish slopes of the the Pyrenees.
In the beginning present in most of the Europe, one still found in France at the 18th century of the bears in the the Alps, the the Pyrenees, the the Jura and the the Vosges. Because of an important pressure of the man on their habitat and their population, the number of French bear does not cease decreasing, thus at the beginning of the 20th century, one does not find any more any bear apart from the Pyrenees, where them number is estimated between 70 and 150. Then the decline is fast, in spite of the intervention of the government: the stop of hunting for the bear is effective only in 1972, the brown bear is registered on the list of protected spaces in 1979 and the first protection plan goes back to 1984. One counts about fifteen individuals in the years 1980 and only five in the middle of the years 1990.
The government decides to launch a program aiming at restoring a population of bear viable, i.e. sufficiently many, by introducing into the Pyrenees of the brown bears of Slovenien origin , close to the Pyrenean stock on the plan of their genetic inheritance and their lifestyle. Between May 1996 and May 1997, three Slovenien bears are slackened in the central Pyrenees allowing thanks to births, to make go up the population enters 14 and 18 bears to the end of the year 2005. In 2006, five additional Slovenien bears are released, in accordance with the plan of restoration and conservation of the brown bear in the Pyrenees Frenchwomen 2006-2009.
The presence of the ourse poses problems with the herds which do not profit from suitable measurements of proctection (presence of Patou S, presence of Berger S and night regrouping), thus creating tensions with certain stockbreeders.
After the very mediatized death of the last ourse of Pyrenean stock, Cinnamon, shot down by a hunter on November 1st 2004, one attends an important mobilization around the bears of the Pyrenees, between those which wish its safeguard and those which are opposed to it.
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