For decades the bear was annihilated in Spain. In Asturias it has become a huge tourist attraction

From being on the brink of disappearance due to harassment by poachers and the deterioration of the habitat to increasing its population to become a tourist attraction that attracts thousands of visitors. That of the bear of the Cantabrian Mountains is a curious story. Because of their figures. And for his readings. There was a time, not so long ago, when experts practically considered it lost, with only a few dozen specimens divided into two nuclei. Today their number has multiplied in Asturias and it is a very effective tourist attraction.

There is so much interest there, in fact, that during the summer months more than 5,000 visitors come to the council of Somiedo eager to photograph bear cubs.

The (big) bear hook. Not so long ago, environmentalists looked at the bear of the Cantabrian Mountains with undisguised concern, pending an inanimate registry, of just a few dozen specimens, that invited everything but optimism. Now the data is much more promising and those who look at plantigrades with interest are tourism professionals. And rightly so.

Its towns have become a tourist attraction that each summer attracts thousands of visitors eager to see bears at their leisure. There are observation points. There are activities related to the bear. There are routes available for 40 euros. And there is a notable influx of nature enthusiasts with cameras around their necks.

Are there so many people moving? Yes. This is reflected in the data collected a few days ago by The Newspaperwhich specifies that throughout the summer more than 12,000 people passed through Somiedo, 5,800 in July and a few more in August. And proof that this wave of visitors was largely attracted by the prospect of seeing bears in the surroundings of the Natural Park is that professionals in the sector assure that this was the main motivation for 90% of the visits registered in August.

“It is still the king and lately people come just asking to see bears. It is the most popular activity,” Roberto Galán, guide and environmental educator at Natura Somiedo, confesses to the newspaper. The hoteliers association certifies the boom.

Taking advantage of the vein. The mayor, Belarmino Fernández, remembers the importance of the declaration of the Somiedo Natural Park in 1988, an initiative that favored “tourist development” in the area with the bear becoming its main image. At that time, of course, hikers could at most hope to move through the same environment as brown bears. Given the population at the time, the probability of seeing one in person was low, to say the least.

Fernández points out that over the years “appropriate infrastructure” has been created to make things easier for visitors without interfering with the environment, such as parking lots and viewpoints. “There is 40% of the park that cannot be visited, we want people from the villages to be able to see bears with binoculars, from a distance and without influencing its conservation,” adds the councilor to The Newspaper. The bet does not seem to have paid off if we take into account how the bear population has evolved and especially its impact on tourism in the region.

“Full of people”. In August Fernández acknowledged that the council was “full of people”, largely tourists looking for bears. The viewpoints were full and occupancy in rural tourism accommodation reached 80% in some areas on the eve of the festive weekend in mid-August, well above the national average for the sector at that time, which barely exceeded 60%. .

“Like at the zoo”. The phenomenon is actually complex. Not only are more tourists arriving; Those who visit the region also have varied profiles. Galán recently pointed this out: “In summer we increasingly find people who come with the idea of ​​taking a photo of the bear, making a recording and leaving, without showing much more interest in the species or nature.” “Many think that seeing the bear in the wild is like doing it at the zoo, they expect to see it in ten minutes.”

Successes… and challenges. Tourist success also comes with risks. a few months ago Leon’s Diary echoed the concern with which some experts view the increase in visitors eager to spot bears in León and Asturias. They are worried about how it may affect the animals. The reason, lamented Vincenzo Penteriani, an expert at the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC), is the behavior of visitors who “do not respect” the distance from the bears.

“They can cause problems that upset the bears, which if they are in heat can be aggressive.” It can even affect the care of the cubs. Farmers have also raised their voices to warn of the problems generated by tourism and the increased population. There are locals who admit to seeing with concern the incursions of the animals, attracted by honey hives or fruit trees.

Was it always like this? At all. The brown bear has gained presence and has become a tourist attraction in the Cantabrian Mountains and the Pyrenees, but it has not always been like this. At the end of the 20th century, between the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s, it is estimated that in the Cantabrian Mountains there were about 50 or 60 specimens divided into two nuclei, one of them with the “lowest genetic variability in the world,” he recalls. to RTVE Guillermo Palomero, from the Oso Pardo Foundation.

The situation is very different now. There are more than 370 specimens spread across an area that has grown exponentially to cover some 17,000 km2 in several provinces, according to calculations published by the CSIC last year.

The situation in the Pyrenees. In the Pyrenees the situation was also dramatic at the end of the last century, which led to measures being taken to prevent the mountain range from running out of brown bears. The graphs of the GSTOP Cross-Border Monitoring Group reflect what the situation is today, after the efforts of recent decades: from a testimonial presence, with a handful of specimens in 1996, it has increased to 76 registered in the provisional census of 2022.

Brown Bear Foundation also reported in 2023 that a significant part of them are cubs and that the species occupies an area of ​​5,700 km2 in the Pyrenees, significantly less than two years before, although the group attributes this drop to the fact that “there are no specimens with satellite tracking”. The history of the bear in the region is marked, however, by achievements and losses. In October 2010, France declared the last native specimen of the Pyrenees, known as “Camille”, dead.

“On the verge of extinction”. This is how Palomero assesses the situation in which the brown bear once found itself, at the end of the 20th century. It is still a protected species in danger of extinction, but it has managed to get out of the critical category and its evolution in recent decades is often presented as “one of the greatest conservation success stories” in Spain. The figures support it.

The key to change? Protection plans, repopulation, surveillance that cornered poaching, a change in social sensitivity. To achieve this, it was necessary to tackle some of their major threats, such as the installation of snares or hunting, which was maintained “with a certain impunity,” Palomero denounces, despite the fact that it was furtive.

A harassed species. “The Cantabrian brown bear population was isolated between the 17th and early 19th centuries and continued to decline during the 20th. In 1973 this population was protected, but continued to decline until the 1990s. Human-induced mortality (hunting, poisoning , etc.) and the loss of habitat (mining (industrialization, mining or infrastructure) were the main threats to the population during the decline”, stated a study on the subject published in 2023 in Conservation Science & Practice.

He is not the only one who has influenced the causes of the bear’s decline. In the 90s the publication Ecology echoed another survey during which guards were asked what in their opinion were the keys to the “population decline” of the bear in the Cantabrian Mountains. Their answer: illegal hunters, loss of habitat, lack of tranquility and the construction of roads in their surroundings. The situation is beginning to be different today. To the joy of conservationists and the Asturian tourism sector.

Images | Wikipedia, Andara Rutas (Flickr) and AR Escuela Superior de Medio Ambiente (Flickr)

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