"This is like a Christmas present!" That's how Gabriel Schwaderer, managing director of EuroNatur, comments the most recent news from EuroNatur's project area in the north of Spain. For the first time after years, EuroNatur's partner FAPAS localizes a mother bear with her cub in the Teverga municipality in the Cantabrian Mountains.
A hidden camera provided the evidence in November. There had been no offspring in this part of the valley for a long time. "The birth of this young bear proves the success of the relentless efforts of FAPAS and EuroNatur to preserve the habitat of the brown bear in the Cantabrian Mountains", says Schwaderer. Thanks to intense protection measures, the number of these furry mammals has increased in the western part of the mountains. The event in Teverga shows that obviously female bears raise their cubs more often in areas where there hasn't been any offspring for decades.
Apart from their fight against poaching, FAPAS' and EuroNatur's main commitment is to improve the food situation for the bears. With the support of EuroNatur donors, the company Vaude and the Association for Conservation of the European Outdoor Group, they buy or rent abandoned farms in areas that contribute to the enlargement of the region where the bears are known to live, and plant cherry and apple trees. In early summer 2009, a bear lived on the lately acquired 17-acres estate "Finca El Coronel" in the municipality of Teverga for several weeks, mainly feeding on the ripe cherries. The young bear captured by the hidden camera in November, was probably born in January 2010.