Pyrenean Bears — The Return of the Brown Bear

Pyrenean Bears — The Return of the Brown Bear

The brown bear () in France is one of Europe's great conservation sagas — a story of near-extinction, controversial reintroduction, fierce rural opposition, and a slowly growing population that today numbers around 80 individuals in the Pyrenees.

• Electric fencing — for night enclosures
• Shepherds' salaries — subsidies to maintain human presence with flocks
• Compensation — full compensation for confirmed kills, partial for probable ones
• Bear brigades — emergency teams that respond when bears approach villages

Seeing Bears

Your chances of seeing a wild bear in the Pyrenees are extremely low — they are shy, nocturnal, and inhabit dense forest in remote valleys. But signs of their presence are more common: claw marks on trees, overturned rocks, tracks in mud.

The in Saint-Lary-Soulan is a museum and education centre dedicated to the Pyrenean bear, with exhibits, films, and guided walks to bear habitats.

Pyrenees National Park — Visiting the national park that protects France's bears — on La Porte.