In early August, a bear and her two cubs were filmed in Val d’Aran, Spain, near the border with Haute-Garonne. The little family was eating wild berries.
Is a new family of bears close to Bigorre? In early August, the Spanish videographer, Marion Busquetsimmortalized a mother and her two cubs feeding on wild berries, blueberries according to a post on Facebook.
The plantigrade family was spotted in Val d’Aran, in the far south of Haute-Garonne, across the border with Spain. In the south-east of the Hautes-Pyrénées therefore.
A bear and her two cubs could correspond to the last observation of Sorita, a female reintroduced in 2018 who usually resides in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, in the Ossau valley, and who gave birth to two cubs identified this year. Sorita and her two cubs were also seen in Béarn in July.
If it is indeed Sorita, it means that she crossed the Hautes-Pyrénées department, heading east, to find herself in the Val d’Aran a few days later.
Distribution of bears in 2022.
It is possible, conversely, that a female came from the eastern Pyrenees heading west (central Pyrenees), an area where the bear population is significantly lower. The females accompanied by their young are very cautious and do not hesitate to travel long distances, in particular because of the males who sometimes kill the cubs to ensure their own descendants.
At present, the family of bears sighted in the Val d’Aran has not been identified. Images of a family feeding are quite rare.
