These are rare images, captured on June 21 at Bonac-Irazein, a small town in Ariège in the Pyrenees. Agents of the Bear team, members of
the French Biodiversity Office, and an individual, were able to observe on a rocky slope of the massif a female and her calf, as well as the moment when she breastfeeds her.
“Observations of this behavior are very rare and these images are exceptional in the Pyrenees”, indicates the OFB. in a posted video last week.
Ten cubs already spotted
We also see other bears and their cubs born during the winter. According to an initial count made by the Adet-Pays de l’ours association, on June 30, four litters of ten 10 cubs had been detected on the French side of the Pyrenees, and a litter of three cubs on the Spanish side. Genetic records of the latter should be compared with that spotted in Ustou, in Ariège last June, to know if it is the same.
During the first semester, more than 500 indirect indications of the presence of a plantigrade were collected by members of the Brown Bear network in four Pyrenean departments, from the Aspe Valley to the Ariège town of Perles-et- Castelet. Emerging early from the dens, the first bears showed the tip of their truffles on February 11. The births of this year will be added to the number of last year, estimated by the members of the biodiversity office at a minimum of 64 bears present on the massif.