17 May
2019
A female
brown bear released in the French Pyrenees has killed eight sheep in Spain,
prompting emergency talks between the two countries.
Claverina
is now roaming through the mountains of Navarre, having crossed from Béarn in
south-western France.
Spanish
environmental officials are meeting French counterparts. Some sheep are now
wearing tracking devices and there are plans to deploy guard dogs.
Claverina
and another female brown bear were brought over from Slovenia.
They were
reintroduced in Béarn last October, because the bear population in that region
is tiny - there are just two others, both male.
It is a
controversial policy - there have been protests by some shepherds in both
France and Spain.
Alpine
Slovenia has more than 500 brown bears and is helping the French National
Hunting and Wildlife Agency (ONCFS) to reintroduce the mammals to the Pyrenees,
where their numbers shrank because of hunting.
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