The bear cub was walking disoriented around the outskirts of Barniedo de la Reina, a village of 50 inhabitants in the mountains of León. Something was wrong with it. It was limping. On August 2, a local resident witnessed the little plantigrade cub stumbling around and alerted the environmental wardens and the agents of the Bear Patrol of Castilla y León. Then, an operation began to catch it and treat the animal’s wounds, with its paws burned, presumably from having walked on embers from a fire, and help it gain weight and health before returning it to the natural environment. This process, which takes months, is carried out with the utmost discretion to prevent the bear from getting used to humans and becoming gentrified. If this were to happen, its reintroduction into the Picos de Europa and its recovery of a normal life would be very complicated. The growing presence of the species is normalizing cases like this, with lost cubs that need a boost for their development before returning to their habitat.
The specimen is recovering satisfactorily in the Wild Animal Recovery Centre (CRAS) in Valladolidwho arrived in a kind of dog carrier, without vision so as not to excite him, and weighing 6.4 kilos, less than usual for his age. Álvaro Soto, veterinarian in charge of the space administered by the Ministry of the Environment, explains that the facilities in Valladolid have been specially set up for cases like this and that another similar one is planned to be built in León, with a cost of 1.7 million euros, due to the greater presence of wild fauna. “They are not usually given names so as not to humanize them and not to grow fond of them, although we treat them as best as possible,” explains the expert. In any case, they refer to him as Barniedo because he comes from there.
The first analysis was satisfactory because “he arrived alert, awake, he looked and was conscious”, while “there was a bear cub two years ago that arrived very depressed, almost comatose”. Barniedo appeared “somewhat dehydrated and thin, with a weight considerably lower than expected”, a situation that they attribute to the fact that, according to the control systems in the mountains, he belonged to a litter of three bear cubs in the care of a female. “He was a little small for his age, at first they eat milk, vegetables and carrion and it is not the same to take care of one cub as three”, she explains. They believe that perhaps he stepped on the embers of a fire that occurred days ago in those places in León and that as a result of the burns he was left behind and isolated from the adult and his siblings.
Soto points out that since no burnt hair was detected, it is inferred that he did not exactly go through a fire, but rather on still-warm embers, since the lacerations and sensitive skin could be seen on the pads of the feet. The veterinarians sedated him with the intention of evaluating him “and so that he would not be stressed or in pain, and to act safely for everyone.” The blood tests did not reveal any pathologies and they applied treatment to his paws, with a first severe bandage so that he would not become infected, because they detected “infestation of fly larvae” on one claw.
The plan works. The omnivore weighs around 10 kilos and is expected to soon double the weight at which it was intercepted. “We like its weight and how it interacts, which is nothing. When there is noise it hides in a cave and doesn’t see us when we enter its space to clean excrement, add food or water,” says the veterinarian. It eats a diet of fruit, sprouts and roe deer meat: “At first it didn’t leave anything behind. We don’t want it to be fat, but we do want it to make up for lost time!”
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The CRAS team is happy when they see him bathing or climbing apple trees, routines that he will also have to perform in the mountains. The last step before releasing him will be to take him to larger enclosures, with no human contact, on a farm in Valsemana (León), where there is now a 25-kilogram bear. They will still have to decide whether to bring them together or not before giving them freedom. Then they will put a kind of GPS on him, a transmitter attached to his back because a collar, as he is growing, could strangle him. He still has hundreds of kilos to gain. He also has a chip to track his adventures.
“The greatest danger is that they do not adapt. Given the time that has passed, it seems unlikely that they will return to their mother. They usually live together for a year and then they have to find their own way because she will have another litter,” says Soto. To speed up the adaptation, they modify the feeding times: first they give them daily sustenance and then they space it out so that they get used to not having constant supplies.
The favorable recovery of the bear cub pleases Guillermo Palomero, president of the Brown Bear Foundation. The entity estimates that around 400 individuals live in the Cantabrian Mountains, a growing number that means that events like this, with disoriented animals, are becoming normal. “Since 2019, every year we find between one and three bear cubs that survive infanticidal attacks by a male or get lost from their mother. The strategy is well detailed, with good collaboration between autonomous regions,” says Palomero.
The foundation is trying to rebalance the development of the species by releasing recovered females and transferring them to less populated areas, such as eastern Asturias or León, to encourage reproduction with native males. Studies over the years have revealed that mothers are less mobile between areas than bears, so this non-aggressive adjustment is intended to continue promoting the development of these animals. “We suggest releasing them when there is a lot of autumn food,” says Palomero, as this ensures easy access to food in the first stages of their new stage. The specialist insists on the discretion of human care to prevent the bears from getting used to people and “not coming down to houses for cuddles or food.”
The head of the Brown Bear Foundation fondly remembers the case of Molina, a bear cub collected in the mountains of Asturias that was cared for for a while, but after being released, she went down to the villages to find easy food. “That is the only one that has gone wrong, she returned to human environments from where she was caught and there was no other option,” he says. Then she was transferred to captivity, but in very large spaces, in facilities of the Brown Bear Foundation of Asturias: “She is happy now, doing a tremendous job of raising awareness with the people who come to see her.”
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