The expertise conducted by the Departmental Directorate of Territories and Sea (DDTM) confirms that the ewe found dead this week by a breeder of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques was the victim of a "predation" when a tag placed in the same place the Slovenian bear Claverina, introduced in October in the French Pyrenees, announces Saturday the prefecture.
Traces of bites raised
"The characteristics of the wounds found on the carcass of the animal demonstrate that it is indeed a predation, and that we can not dismiss the responsibility of the bear," concluded the DDTM, which has therefore decided to launch a compensation procedure for the breeder of this ewe, the first victim in France of Claverina. The prefecture had announced Friday that "traces of bites (were) recorded" on a dead ewe found by a breeder in Larrau while "the GPS locations transmitted by the Claverina transmitter collar reported on the night of April 29 to April 30 in the immediate vicinity "of the place where the dead beast was found.
"We did not think this bear would come so close to the farms"
Claverina had attacked a sheep in the Spanish Pyrenees in November, according to the regional government of Navarre. Since her release in Béarn in October, she has spent most of her time across the border in the Spanish provinces of Aragon - where she hibernated - and Navarre. She has returned to France since 19 April, as part of "wide movements of discovery of the territory" which show that it "still does not seem fixed on a particular area", according to the prefecture of Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
"We did not think that this bear could go so close to farms, as low [800 m altitude]," said Jean-Marc Bengochea, the concerned breeder and mayor of Larrau, on France Bleu. "In 15 or 20 days, all the flocks will go up, there will be a lot of animals on the mountain pastures, we are very worried".
Two bears reintroduced in October 2018
Claverina and Sorita, another Slovenian plantigrade, were introduced in October in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques to save the species, much to the chagrin of local sheep farmers opposed to their presence. Sorita recently gave birth to two cubs with whom she emerged from her hibernation in the Hautes-Pyrénées. Forty brown bears were counted in the Pyrenees in 2018 but this figure can be underestimated, according to the Ministry of Ecological Transition.