What should we never do if we find ourselves a few meters away from a bear in the forest? One of the tips to follow is, especially if the animal is within walking distance, not to approach and film the bear with our cell phone. It seems obvious, but the temptation to obtain supposedly exclusive images causes situations such as those shown in some fragments of videos spread in recent days through private messages and on social networks on the Internet.
In this controversial filming, an unidentified person, the reckless cameraman, possibly a ballotaire (mushroom hunter), records a young bear with his mobile phone in a forest in Canejan (Aran Valley). The animal is a few meters away, looking for food among the leaves, and when it checks the human presence it appears surprised, even violated, looking at the camera at times, while it shakes some branches, perhaps to warn the intruder.
Fortunately, there is no news that the encounter will cause any major incident for the person who dared to film the bear at such close range.
Marc Alonso, an expert with the Depana brown bear monitoring group, reminds that people who encounter wild animals such as bears should take the necessary precautions to avoid incidents. “Getting so close to a bear and filming it is reckless, it could have provoked a violent reaction from the animal, which was calmly in its natural environment and may feel threatened,” explains Marc Alonso, who works on the study and monitoring of the bear in the Pyrenees for three decades. “The bear filmed is a young specimen but as can be seen, it has a considerable size and weight and an encounter with a person can be a real danger.”
This Depana expert takes advantage of the incident to ask citizens for caution and for more public information from the administrations, in this case, the Consell d’Aran. “In the Aran Valley there is a lack of information about the presence of bears and about the behavior that we should follow in the event of encounters like the one that has now been filmed,” says Alonso.
Also addressing the competent administrations, this expert proposes that the case of this specific bear be studied to determine if it is necessary to take any measures to prevent it from approaching inhabited areas or getting used to the presence of humans.
