Bears in the Ariège Pyrenees

If you visit Ariège, you may be struck by how often the image of the bear is displayed, especially in the Couserans region. You could be led to believe that the mountains here are teeming with them but in fact the brown bear completely disappeared from the central Pyrenees in the 1980s, leaving only a handful in the west of the chain.

In May and June of 1996 a European program to reintroduce bears to the central Pyrenees began with the release of two female bears from Slovenia, a country with similar environmental conditions and whose bear population is genetically close to those native to these mountains. A third bear, a male, was released a year later. "Mellba", "Zivos" and "Pyros", were set free, fitted with radio tracking collars, in the commune of Melles in the neighboring department of Haute Garonne.

Bears cover a lot of ground and very soon one of the females, Zivos, crossed into the Couserans region of Ariège. Ironically, she was tracked to the mountains of the Garbet Valley, whose 19th century inhabitants played a significant role in the decimation of the bear population in that area.

Far from being delighted by the return of the bear, many Ariégeois, especially sheep farmers, were angry. Since the disappearance of large predators from these mountains, most farmers who graze their flocks and herds on the estives (high summer pastures) have been able to leave them with minimal supervision. The traditional guard dog, the patou or Great Pyrenees, had nearly disappeared as well.

Bears are omniverous and soon, as farmers had feared, a few sheep were killed and one of the bears was a prime suspect. The farmers are compensated for losses to the bears but they were not mollified. They resented the fact that the reintroduction was done without anyone consulting them. They make a precarious living as it is and viewed this project as another threat inflicted on them by outsiders who don't understand their problems.

Ariégeois also have a long history of resistance to any scheme, no matter how well-intentioned, imposed by Paris, especially when it obliges them to change their ways. When King Charles the tenth attempted to reverse the overexploitation of the forests by taking back control of them from the communes, the Guerre des Demoiselles was the result. In the 1970s the inhabitants voted against locating the Parc National des Pyrenees here, in part because they feared restrictions on their activities in the mountains. (The park has brought great economic benefit to the departments of Hautes-Pyrénées and Pyrénées-Atlantiques after it was subsequently established there.) The same mentality has come into play with the bears. Accepting the inevitability of their presence means doing things differently--not easy for an Ariégeois.

Zivos and Mellba eventually united with Pyros and produced cubs. In September 1997, Mellba was killed in Ariège by a young hunter, who claimed self-defense. Her two cubs were then 9 months old and many wondered whether they would survive without her (bear cubs stay with the mother until they are about a year old). Later in the fall Ziva was spotted with 2 cubs--were they Mellba's? The team tracking the bears eventually determined that they were her own.

As soon as the Slovenian bears and their offspring emerged from their second hibernation in the Pyrenees the grumbling began again and NON AUX OURS appeared on some walls and cliff faces. With every lamb or sheep lost, passions ran higher. A shepherd who publicly supported the program received death threats, and anonymous communiqués to newspapers hinted darkly of more hunting accidents.

North American visitors, especially those from mountain regions, could be forgiven for finding the hysteria over a handful of bears fairly absurd given how sparsely populated these mountains are. There are nearly 5000 bears in the state of New York alone, and many thousands more in Canada. In Ariège, however, the estives are an essential component of agricultural life. Communes at higher altitudes set aside, prepare and maintain land which they rent for summer grazing to associations of farmers. If a bear is at large in the area the farmers will be afraid to bring their livestock there and the commune will lose much-needed revenue. This is one of the reasons mayors of communes have been among the most vociferous opponents of the bears.

1999 was an especially difficult year. That summer one and possibly two bears were spotted in the mountains around Orlu and one of them seemed to be killing sheep seemingly just for the sport of it. At least two young horses died, allegedly chased off precipices by a bear. (This exceptionally aggressive subadult bear was thought to be one of Mellba's offspring--the result of a deprived cubhood?)

The farmers were furious. Some called for the capture of the Orlu bear and removal of him to another department, others for the creation of a fenced bear "park". The bear team tried for several months to capture the bear with baited traps in order to fit him with a radio collar but in summer and early autumn food is plentiful and he was not tempted. In August a large, noisy demonstration was held in Foix by bear opponents and many onlookers were shocked at the sight of very young children, parading next to their parents, carrying placards exhorting TUONS L'OURS (let's kill the bear). In reaction, an association in support of the bears was formed.

In mid September, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and the Minister of the Environment Dominique Voynet came to Ariège to address the matter. There was considerable concern that when the hunting season opened the current atmosphere might lead some hunters to expect to be treated as heros if they "accidentally" shot the bear. Mme Voynet announced that no new bears would be released but neither would the program be suspended and warned Ariégeois not to try to take the matter into their own hands.

Finally in late September one of the bears was trapped near Querigut, in the furthest southeastern corner of the department. DNA tests of fur samples revealed her to be one of Mellba's offspring. A radio tracking device was attached to her ear and she was released.

Throughout the entire period of the reintroduction the senior MP for Ariège was a vociferous opponent of the bear program. His appointment by prime minister Jospin to chair the important Finance Committee boosted his influence and he eventually succeeded at the end of March 2000 in having an amendment attached to a pending hunting law which would require the removal of the Slovenian bears from the central Pyrenees. If the hunting law is passed the non-native bears' presence in Ariège will be "illegal." How they propose to remove them remains to be seen.

The online edition of the newspaper La Dépêche du Midi has an archive of articles (in French) on the story of the bear reintroduction.