Counting Bears in the Pyrenees
The European Brown bear ( Ours brun ) in France live in the remote, dense woodland of the mid dle slopes of the Pyrenean mountain chain. Difficult terrain; very steep, thick undergrowth, and no bear is necessarily going to stick to existing footpaths, although like much of wildlife they do use them when it suits them. This habitat makes counting their numbers a challenge; they are rarely seen during the day and even though occasionally caught on camera traps whilst wandering their known habitats, a more scientific approach needs to be followed in order to establish an accurate census. DNA (Fr.AND ) samples need to be collected so individuals, family trees and to a point behaviour can be analysed and understood. So one July day I was lucky to be invited to join a English friend, Rich, who has been involved in this census for the last few years. We started early, having camped nearby in order to ideally complete the task in the cooler morning hours, and started climbing...