- In Aragón.Los ranchers, on a war foot by the attacks of brown bear in the Pyrenees
On one side of the valley there is a Mediterranean forest, with holm oaks. On the other side, an Atlantic forest with chestnut trees. In the background, a riverbank forest. And there is also a high mountain beech. We walk through Valdolayés, in the municipality of Santo Adriano, in the middle of the osseous area. An enclave of the heart of Asturias that, as Roberto Hartasánchez, president of the Fund for the Protection of Wild Animals (FAPAS) points out, "gives us an idea of the richness of this territory. The orography and climate of Asturias is very unique and it allows you to have a Mediterranean climate as well as an Atlantic on the other side of the valley. We have bears in the oak trees, as if they were in the oak trees of Cádiz. "
But the greatest singularity of this area, he adds, "is that bears and people live together here . None comes close to each other's place although sometimes it is said that bears go down to the villages." And is that a few kilometers from Oviedo inhabits the Cantabrian brown bear, an emblematic species that was greatly reduced in the 80s by hunting but that, since 2004, when the first bear in the area gave birth after two decades with hardly any reproduction, is tracing
Because as Monchu Magadán, the bear specialist of FAPAS, stands out, this animal that usually reaches 20 years in freedom "dominates both the environment and has so many techniques and ways of feeding that it survives shortly after you look for it and stop killing it . We have cases of orphaned cubs that have lost their mother a year, either because they have died or abandoned them, and with barely any teaching they have come forward. "
Unlike the reintroduction plan launched by France and Catalonia in the Pyrenees, where Slovenian bears have been taken to increase a population that was almost extinct by poaching, "in Asturias there is no formula other than if you kill fewer animals from that are born, the population increases ", adds Hartasánchez, who on Thursday collects on behalf of the nine FAPAS workers the BBVA Foundation Award for the Conservation of Biodiversity in the category of Actions in Spain.
They give it for their work to protect the brown bear but also the Iberian wolf, the griffon vulture, the osprey, the wild bee or the Cantabrian capercaillie - on the edge of extinction. With words and actions they try to demonstrate to neighbors and administrations that it is possible to live with these wild animals.
An action plan that they have developed over 35 years and that combines measures such as the fight against poachers, the planting of 10,000 trees (especially chestnut and cherry trees) to provide food to bears, the protection of wild bees , the installation of electric shepherds to prevent bears from attacking hives or raising public awareness about the value of having these wild animals in their forests. Their goal is to stop being seen as vermin and enemies of man because, as Hartasánchez defends, " when you go to the mountain, ticks and wild boars are more dangerous than bears or wolves ."
The bear has a better reputation among the neighbors than the wolf, although the fight against the poachers is not yet won . In that battle, Hartasánchez highlights the work of the Civil Protection Service of the Civil Guard (SEPRONA): "If there are bears in Asturias, it is thanks to the Civil Guard submachine guns," says the president of FAPAS, who witnessed those raids in the villages.
Dozens of armed civil guards searched the houses for evidence of bear hunting. "That caused fear in people and was cut off from the roots," he recalls. At present, despite the fact that his hunting is punishable by three years in prison, he says that "bears are still being killed in the natural parks of Asturias" and regrets that these hooded poachers are going unpunished, partly because it is difficult to prove their authorship but also for the lack of action of the administrations. The last sentence, he recalls, was for a neighbor of Somiedo who did not get into prison for family reasons "Why is the bear killed? To prove that the territory is yours . "
The president of FAPAS also regrets that the Iberian wolf continues to have such a bad reputation in Asturias and above all, "that it has become a tool of political struggle " in rural areas. "Socially, there has always been animosity even though it is a great ally of the farmers. It eliminates carrion and cleanses the forest , slowing the spread of diseases in livestock such as tuberculosis, but this is not counted."
He admits that in Asturias, where there are around one million head of cattle, wolf attacks are recorded - some 2,500 files a year that amount to around one million euros in compensation. But in his opinion, it is a figure "that our society can afford in exchange for being able to preserve the rich biological heritage of Asturias", one of the Spanish communities with more biodiversity.
In addition, he states that many of the attacks attributed to the wolf are actually committed by dogs and, on the other hand, he believes that "there is a lot of livestock in Asturias that is not well attended, because we have never had so few cattle farmers for as much cattle as now " .
The wild species of Asturias were very damaged when, following the detection of mad cow disease, the European regulation entered into force to avoid encephalopathies. It was forbidden for farmers to leave the bodies of their animals as they had always done. These were the base of the feeding of the wolves and the vultures and a very important source for the bears that, being omnivorous, are very scavengers but also eat many fruits, bees larvae and honey.
From one day to the next, the wildlife was left without the 30,000 dead animals that were available each year in this autonomous community while the farmers had to pay for a service to remove dead animals. European regulations, which Hartasánchez describes as "precipitous, suitable only for the countries of northern Europe and very harmful for those in the South such as Spain and Greece," was amended in 2006 and Spain adapted it into a royal decree that took autonomy at the regional level. years to apply. Even now, many farmers still do not leave their dead animals in the bush for lack of information.
"Due to the lack of carrion, the wolves changed their behavior and also the bears , which used to attack the hives very little, where they mainly look for larval protein, generating the social alarm we have now," says Hartasánchez. Regarding the number of attacks on hives and cattle attributed to the brown bear, this newspaper requested the data from the Ministry of Rural Development and Natural Resources of the Principality of Asturias but they were not provided.
In Asturias there are two populations of Cantabrian brown bear. "The western one, which is this one and has 95% of the specimens, and the eastern population, which according to the administration, has a total of thirty specimens (males and females) since the 80s and does not grow," says Hartasánchez.
They do not know how many there are in the western population although the photo-trapping cameras that are installed by the forests of Asturias and that are activated when an animal passes help them to know them better: " We have 60 breeding bears , that is, adult females. They begin to to reproduce at age seven although we thought it was at age five. They have two births every three years, and in each birth one to three cubs are born, "he details.
Its gestation is an example that nature is wise. They are pregnant between May and June and the embryo stops growing in August; When autumn arrives the so-called hyperphagia period begins - they eat a lot to accumulate reserves - and the embryo develops again so that the birth takes place in December, while the female is in the cave without activity and therefore without feeding. They are born very small, weigh 300 grams, and instinctively get hooked on the mother's nipple while she sleeps.
Males and females have different behaviors. The male is totally independent and does not take care of his children : "He enters all the females he can and doesn't want to know anything about diapers," Hartasánchez jokes. That is why he moves and does not hesitate to kill cubs to force a female to go back into heat and copulate with her. On the contrary, " the female is philopatric, that is, she tends to stay where she was born, and they are easier to locate because in May they leave the bears with the young."
But in general, seeing bears is very difficult . Monchu Magadán knows that he literally follows his footsteps in the mountains since 1992, when he entered FAPAS. Every day he takes his backpack every day, selects one of the approximately 50 routes he has traced through the center of Asturias and goes to the mountain. "I've never had an incident with a wild animal ," he says.
No need to see bears to feel them. By examining their footprints, their droppings and vegetation you can find out a lot of information, such as what they have eaten, whether it was a male or a female, an adult or a sub-adult or when it has passed through.
"You have to avoid being a nuisance to them . I always walk in broad daylight and they tend to have more activity at sunrise or sunset. At noon they usually sit down . We have been shooting them for many years so it is very difficult for you to face each other with one. At the end of the year I sometimes find them. " How do they react? "They have a very fine nose but they see you as a lump so they stare at you. You have to be noticed, tell them something quiet and it is normal that they growl a little and leave ." He takes the opportunity to observe them, look at whether they are skinny or not, the marks they have on their fur to identify them or calculate their age.
He never takes pictures "because they are very short encounters" and considers it a time to live it. "If you waste time taking out the camera when you realize the bug has disappeared and it is better to keep the memory and enjoy it. The hard drive of the head is not erased."
"A PHOTOGRAPHER CAN BE AS DANGEROUS AS A HUNTER"
A hundred photocamera cameras placed in trees allow the FAPAS team to study and monitor bears without disturbing them. Each one costs about 70 euros, they are activated when the animal passes and such is the amount of photos obtained that there are three people dedicated to examine them. They also serve to verify the effectiveness of measures designed to protect the bee, such as a PVC hive that, according to Luis García, prevents the bear from accessing the bees, allowing them to pollinate mountain ecosystems. The system is based on Roman hives but uses new materials. R&D applied to biodiversity conservation.
On the other hand, Roberto Hartasánchez shows his concern about the proliferation of nature photographers who go to areas where bears take refuge and do as much damage as a hunter: "A camera can be as dangerous as a rifle," he says.
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