Looking Ahead - What Does This Summer Have in Store?

Spring has arrived and with the rising temperatures, the snow on the summits and high cols in the Pyrenees has begun to melt. With the first bookings of the year being taken for summer treks I find myself looking forward in anticipation. What does this summer have in store? If it is like any other summer in the Pyrenees with Pyrenees Mountain Adventure........

Film of Brown Bear

Latest brown bear images from the Pyrenees captured by an automatic camera. Unusually it is daytime. The female bear is Hvala, one of the bears successfully reintroduced from Slovenia. The name means Thankyou in English. The 2 bear cubs were born this year.

Bears: Myths and Realities

Bears, Myths and Realities is the new exhibition event at the Natural History Museum in Toulouse which runs from 13th October ton the 30th June 2014. 

The bear is a  mythical animal and until the Middle Ages in France was regarded as the king of the animals with bear worship popular in some parts of the Pyrenees . It was the Catholic church at this time which began to demonise the bear and the cult of the bear. The lion was promoted as the real king of the animals and bears were persecuted and hunted to near extinction.

The exhibition looks at how, whether revered or feared, the bear is the object of many fantasies and desires, between attraction and aversion.

Perhaps the fascination about bears starts with the fact that they resemble ourselves in many ways. They can walk upright, have closely human-like ears, have a similar diet, and leave tracks with the whole of their back foot (heel, arch and toes). In France the bear is given human names like Martin or  lou pedescaous (le va-nu-pieds, or ‘the barefooted one’),  loucourailhat (‘the vagabond’) and Mousu (‘le monsieur’).

There are examples of the 8 different bear species from around the world. The brown bear from the Pyrenees is represented by the Canelle the last 'authentic' female bear in the Pyrenees, shot by a hunter in 2004. Her pelt has been mounted and on display.

The exhibition comes at a time when the tension between the pro and anti brown bear reintroduction factions has heightened. Those previously against the reintroduction of Slovenian bears to boost the population of bears in the Pyrenees (largely farmers and shepherds in the mountains) are now not only calling for no further reintroductions, but that the existing brown bears should be removed. They have threatened to take measures into their own hands although brown bears remain a protected species and killing them remains illegal.

Website: Natural History Museum of Toulouse

Ibex (Re)Introduction

The Ibex is a large, stocky member of the goat family. The males are bigger than the females (weighing up to 90 kilos) and are recognisable by their impressive curved horns. 

Ibex

The Ibex is represented in ancient Pyrenean cave art.

Ibex cave painting Niaux Cave, Ariege, Eastern Pyrenees

Images of the Ibex can also be found  in the 14th century Book of the Hunt by Gaston Fébus.

Ibex hunt from the Book of the Hunt - Gaston Fébus (15th Century)

To see the animal for real in the Pyrenees in 2013 is impossible. The animal disappeared from the French side of the chain in 1910 and the Spanish side in 2000. This was in large part due to overhunting althought the final animal in the Spanish Ordesa National Park was killed by a falling tree.

A project does exist to reintroduce this magnificent animal. The French want to start with introducing 20 male and female Ibex in the Haute Pyrenees and as many in the Ariege region with a long term aim of 160 releases along the entire chain over the coming years. The French will buy the animals from Spain where breeding populations exist away from the Pyrenees.

The first phase of the reintroduction programme was meant to take place in the spring of 2013 but unfortunately it is taking longer than planned. Things are being held up by the Spanish Agricultural Minister who has failed to sign the agreement and give the official go ahead. The timing of the first releases have been put back to the autumn.

Whereas the reintroduction of the brown bear has divided the population in the Pyrenees, the return of the Ibex is generally well supported. There have been several successful reintroduction in the Pyrenees in the past including the marmot and mouflon.