Each year, the long-awaited census of the bears of the Pyrenees comes out at the same time as the interested parties from their hibernation dens. Thanks to the genetic analysis of droppings or hair left on the way, or sometimes near the corpses of unfortunate ewes, to the precious images of the harmless “camera traps” stashed in the trees and to the testimonies of hikers, the specialists of the French Office of biodiversity (OFB) reveal in their report made public this Friday that 76 plantigrades have officially trudged through the massif in 2022, including “13 cubs of the year”. They were 70 in 2021. Well, we thought, because counting and identifying bears is not an exact science, now that none of them wear a GPS collar anymore.
RIP Fosca and unexpected return of “New18-18”
When they do not point their muzzle or lose any hair found for two consecutive years, they are considered “missing” and the bear technical team cautiously speaks of a “minimum number retained” (EMR), which can be altered several years. After. The good surprise of the year is therefore the return to the workforce of New18-18 (which we will finally be able to baptize by something other than a code name). This adult female has not only been “rediscovered” but she is walking with a teenager who we did not even suspect existed. Small relief also for Goiat, the bear with a big temper whose lameness worried the associations: last April, he was still walking around Aragon.
Conversely, five bears, including the adult female Fosca, are now considered “missing” when seven others, who left no trace last year, still appear in the tables. Finally, the report confirms the thesis of a fatal fight between plantigrades concerning the bear discovered dead in Melles (Haute-Garonne), at the bottom of a ravine.
Despite the legitimate uncertainties, the Ursine population of the Pyrenees is therefore composed of 39 females and 35 males and two cubs whose sex has not yet been determined. “The population is mainly made up of young individuals, 83% of whom are under 10 years old,” notes the OFB, which is also delighted with a survival rate of 75% for cubs of the year. But this population growth (11.23% per year since 2006) is too slow for the taste of pro plantigrades. “The bear population in the Pyrenees is still not viable”, reacts the association bear country-Adet. She is still worried about the low population in Béarn, with “four to five males” and only two females, and reiterates her request for new releases to compensate for the two bears killed by bullets in 2020. She also points out that genetic renewal is not really there, with few lines that do not descend from the late Pyros the pretty heart.
But bear lovers are rubbing their paws when they discover the remarkably stable “bear damage” tables. There were 331 attacks recorded in 2022, mainly in Ariège, two less than the previous year. They claimed the lives of 590 domestic animals, many sheep but also four cows. And this time the bears didn’t destroy a single hive.