(With videos). The Ariège-Pyrénées Heritage Protection Association launched 9 G, a network of volunteers who report the presence of bears. Just on Tuesday, plantigrada attacked the beehive in the presence of an OFB agent! Magali Lacube, who was also part of the delegation to study bears in Italy, calls, following Christina Téqui, for the regulation of this animal.
Better than a personnel card! Thursday, May 23 “report of a large bear near the GRP Tour du Biros trail, between the Illau hut and Lake Arain. This first weekend of lake fishing, hikers and anglers, be careful!” This is a message worthy of the precision of GPS that was shared on social media by Magali Lacube who was a part of it of the delegation in Trentino that Dis-Leurs told you about HERE. The message comes from Aspap O mountain man Guard your freedom. Pass: “Only in the municipality of Sentein in 2023, at least seven bears were officially identified. Nine “undetermined” mentions correspond to bears whose DNA has not been identified.” The following is a list of identified bears whose names are known to all residents: male Boet, male Bonabé, female Gaïa…
9 G, a network of volunteers who discover bears in the nine valleys
The administrator of Aspap, Magali Lacube, is also the wife of Philippe Lacube, who presides over the fate of the agricultural chamber. Aspap (Association for the Preservation of the Heritage of Ariège-Pyrénées), it is an association “historical channel” she defines, opponents of bear reintroduction and 9 G, it is a “a volunteer network in the Pyrénées-Ariégeoises which, from 2023, detects the presence of bears in each of the department’s nine valleys and which reports the presence of plantigrads near people” to feel a little safer: parking lot, popular hiking trail, house…
The OFB agent throws stones at the bear!
That was the case last Tuesday in the hamlet of Ranet, in the municipality of Auzat, where a bear ignored the human presence and attacked a beehive! As evidenced by the video taken by the owner’s neighbor and whose partner raises goats. “What is funny, comments Magali Lacube, is that it happened in the presence of the owner ia OFB agent. The latter even threw stones in the direction of the bear out of fear! We see it on paper, that’s one thing; on earth, that’s another…”
These detractors of bear reintroduction are on the same wavelength as the president of the council of the department of Ariège, Christine Téqui, who was troubled at Dis-Leurs a few days ago: “If the state does not want to talk about regulation, there will be death”.
Since the repopulation in 1995, the bear population has increased significantly in the Pyrenees, as Dis-Leur explained to you HERE. Out of about a hundred predators, about 80 were listed in Ariège, and especially in Couserans. Bear predation in the summer damages human, livestock, tourist and even economic activities in the mountains.
OFB has 76 people
More precisely: with 76 individuals counted by the French Office for Biological Diversity, we are witnessing real dynamics in the massif. But the plantigrade population is not yet sustainable, according to the director of the association Pays de l’Ours-Adet. Although the bear is responsible for 331 attacks in 2022 for 590 animals killed or injured on domestic livestock, the state invests more resources in better protection of herds and training of shepherds.
“The right balance”
“We need a fairer balance, continues Magali Lacube, another accompanying video HERE. The bear is super protected, and the man is abandoned. Of course, the labor law in France is difficult and strict, but when it comes to bears, we do not hesitate to send shepherds to work among bears, and they do not even have the right to wear a hat. However, there should be changes from this summer: undoubtedly “pepper bomb” could be introduced, like rangers, in Canada’s national parks, even if they are not inhabited. It is a kind of small fire extinguisher filled with a high concentration of cayenne pepper to which the bear is very sensitive…”
Regarding the first of the two public meetings, Friday 24 May, in Trein d’Usto that Dis-Leur announced, Magali Lacube explains that it was full. “People – a good hundred people – were, she relates I am particularly interested in what behavior to adopt when facing a bear if you meet one. People expressed fear and expected safety. Walking with bells, lying on the ground… Even if it didn’t depend on us! But like OFB – who refused to answer us…, editor’s statement – don’t do it, we do it. This is one of the reasons for the 9G network. This is also the reason why the Mountain Future Parliament was created.”
Olivier SCHLAMA
(1) Next meeting: Friday, June 7 in Auzat at 6:30 p.m.
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