A Bears' Picnic

As promised in my last post here is what we got up to last Sunday while Dawn and Rich were visiting. We went to see bears. To be more specific, two Cantabrian brown bears named Paca and Tola.

These two bears were found 18 years ago after their mother had illegally been shot and killed by hunters. As a threatened species, and because they were too young to survive on their own they had to be hand-reared and could then not be released back into the wild as they were too used to humans, and hunters were still a very real threat. Instead, a five-hectare enclosure was built for them - in their natural habitat, the same area that other brown bears are to be found, in the Proaza area. This is in the mountains to the west of where we live, about an hour's drive away. There's also a walking/cycling route along the valley that passes by the enclosure (I've read accounts of the bears following walkers on the other side of the fence), we intend to take the bikes next time we visit and make a day if it. By last Sunday, I had been wanting to visit for a long time and we all rather excited when we arrived.

Every day at twelve the bears are fed by the warden who looks after them and people can watch. We arrived just before twelve to find the two of them tirelessly pacing back and forth, waiting for food. The warden arrived and opened their feeding enclosure into which they eagerly scurried. What amazed me most was how they ate their food. I was expecting them to chomp down and scoff everything quickly, but no. They took apples and pears from the hand of the warden with the greatest care, opened oranges up with their claws and gently scraped the flesh out, then meticulously shelled peanuts before popping them into their mouths.

It really was wonderful to watch. After about half an hour most people left, but we stayed transfixed by two creatures that looked very cuddly and cute, although we could sense the power behind those padded paws and the damage they could do. At the end, one of the bears refused to leave; she wanted more food but they always refuse to give them too much in order to force them to look for other sources and keep their diet as natural and varied as possible. Because she was so stubborn the warden got out a hose pipe with a water pistol on the end and gave her a good hosing down, although she decided that this was an excellent moment for a drink too.

I was very impressed with the way the warden 'presented' the bears. As they had only recently come out of hibernation they were over 40 kilos lighter, and much smaller, than they would have been in the autumn and did almost look like giant teddy bears. However, he made it clear that they were still wild animals and deserved to be treated with respect and caution. He never entered their feeding enclosure and always fed them through the bars. I normally don't hold with keeping wild animals captive, but in this case think an excellent solution was found with what to do with two bear cubs. The bears live in the most natural habitat as possible and at the same time the public are educated about them - there's a centre down the road dedicated to informing visitors about the Cantabrian Brown Bear, which has free entry, (neither do you have to pay to see the bears). According to the warden, numbers of the Cantabrian Brown Bear, which had dwindled to a dangerously low level, have now risen to a safer 170. Although this still seems a frighteningly low figure to me I find it comforting to know that the same children whose ancestors would've have hunted this animal are now being taught to respect it.