The Pyrenees are one of Europe’s last bear territories. Despite opposition from local farmers, they have, in recent years, become one of the symbols of that vast mountain range between France and Spain. Most of the bears in Pyrenees can trace their lineage hundreds of miles away -- to Slovenia.
The brown bears were reintroduced to the Pyrenees in the 1990s as part of a resettlement program jointly organized by the Slovenian and the French governments. The Pyrenees once had a thriving bear population, but overhunting brought the species to the brink of extinction – only six were estimated to remain by the mid-1990s, down from many hundreds at their peak.
To remedy the situation and prevent a total extinction, authorities looked to Slovenia, a country whose brown bears were doing well. The resettlement program began in the 1996, but because the first bears were too few in number, more bears from Slovenia were latter brought in. In 2006 alone, five Slovenian bears were released in the Pyrenean wilderness.
Some of the bears were resettled in secrecy because of the opposition from local farmers and shepherds, who were concerned that the bears would destroy their sheep and other domestic animals. Their fight turned nasty at times; one of the bears was killed by poachers, while unknown perpetrators added shards of glass to bowls of corn intended for the bears. In the village of Arbas, some 250 demonstrators broke windows and clashed with police during protests against the resettlement program.
However, the French authorities refused to back down. They pointed out that bears had always lived in the Pyrenees, and even Carla Bruni, then the First Lady of France, endorsed the resettlement program by adopting one of the bears (as did the actor Gérard Depardieu). Eventually, many locals came to accept their new neighbors. Some have even made them a symbol of the Pyrenean wilderness, just as they were more than a century ago, when they commonly featured in everything from fairy tales and the names of local geographical features.
In June of this year, however, a Slovenian-born bear named Balou was found dead after suffering a fall in a rocky area. The fall was accidental, but Balou’s death raised serious concerns about the reintroduction program because he was one of the two primary reproductive males in the region. His death was reported by the world’s media, giving some indication of the high profile attained by the program.
Meanwhile, the bear population back home in Slovenia continues to thrive, and the government even licenses a few bears to be hunted every year. Several attacks by bears on sheep have resulted in calls for more bears to be shot, but most farmers are used to living with bears. They have learned to drive their sheep into enclosures at night to prevent bear attacks – a small step that can lead to great strides in preserving the frequently tense relationship between bears and humans.