- A first cub of the year was observed in the Pyrenees, while strolling through a forest in Ariège.
- It will be necessary to wait to find biological traces, droppings or hairs, to make its genealogy.
- Pro bear activists hope to see “five to ten” little plantigrades in the mountains this year.
One more ! Authorities officially confirm that a cub of the year, the first of the season, was observed Tuesday in the Pyrenees. He was seen, with his mother, in a forest of Bordes-sur-Lez in the west of the Ariège department.
"This is good news, hoping that there will be many more," said Alain Reynes, director of the pro plantigrade association Pays de l'Ours-Adet, who announced opening of the pink notebook on social networks. The specialist hopes "that five to ten cubs" will be detected this year in the massif, ten being the record set last year.
75% survival rate
The appearance of this cub, probably born in January in the family den, is completely normal for a month of May. In an area of Ariège populated by several females, impossible for the time being, even for connoisseurs, to say who is the happy mother. This will require waiting to find biological traces, droppings or hair. In general, the bears which coddle their young tend to stay on a restricted, steep and isolated territory.
"But they can also travel considerable distances with him if they are disturbed," underlines Alain Reynes. By curious humans or by the male spawning bear who sometimes tends to infanticide if he crosses his offspring.
In general, the survival rate of cubs detected in the Pyrenees is 75%. Apart from a jealous father, the other risk for the bear is to get lost. Like Douillous, the bear found lonely in June 2019 in Ariège. He was sharked, managed to run away in captivity, but was finally reintroduced into his natural environment. We know that he survived until his GPS collar, deliberately fragile so as not to suffocate it during its growth, fell. There too, we have to wait for biological traces to know the rest of the epic of Douillous.
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