The expansion of the brown bear, a species that lives in Asturias, Castilla y León and Galicia, has generated some inconveniences. The main one is the visits of these animals to nearby towns in search of food that they cannot find in the mountains. Expeditions that are not sustainable, in the opinion of specialists.
To put an end to this conflict of interest, the Fund for the Protection of Wild Animals (Fapas) is establishing small fruit plantations in the mountains, a true all-you-can-eat buffet of gourmet food for the ursids.
"During the last few years, the bear's expansion process, which we all applaud, is also causing us some inconveniences," the honorary director of Fapas, Roberto Hartasánchez, explains to Efe.
Hartasánchez emphasizes that the project arose as a result of verifying that the large tree plantations that have been carried out in recent years, although they have helped the proliferation of the brown bear, have turned out to be "ineffective", since the majority of The trees have not survived.
The increase in the population of the species is causing "some bears to get too close to towns in search of food resources that they cannot find in the mountains." "It is not acceptable," says Hartasánchez. "It is easier to find pears, apples and cherries in town settings, which often already have a huge loss of population and productivity," she points out.
That's where the idea of designing these buffets came from. In this way, "if a bear wants to feed on apples in the spring, he will be able to find them" and "he will not need to go down to a house in the town." The first of them is being planted in the surroundings of the Cantabrian municipality of Polaciones (Cantabria), where forty apple trees and ten cherry trees are expected.
The project, which is financed by EDP Renovables, hopes to be able to produce one hundred or two hundred kilos of fruit per year per tree in about four or five years, a more than enough quantity for Fapas, given the bear population.
In addition to bears, he emphasizes that the initiative will have a high impact on other populations such as deer, roe deer, wild boar, wolves or birds. "We planted it for the bear, but it is benefiting the entire chain of living beings," he celebrates.
