Bear M129 must be moved. On June 13, Simon Bertoux, prefect of the Ariège department, signed a decree authorizing agents of the Office Français de la Biodiversité (OFB) to trigger "aversive conditioning [actions] against any individual presenting the characteristics" of the animal. More commonly known as "scaring measures," these actions are used to keep away individuals that get too close to dwellings and humans. In this case, the two-and-a-half-year-old male had become "a little too familiar," in the words of CAP-Ours, a network of some 30 associations supporting the animal's presence in the Pyrénées.
Already spotted in June 2023 on the Spanish side, in Catalonia, in broad daylight at the side of a road in the presence of humans, M129 – according to the official nomenclature, the state having stopped giving names to bears since 2021 – had been kept away by rural agents through the use of scare shots. Less than a year later, on May 20, it reappeared in Auzat, Ariège, where it destroyed two beehives. The very next day, OFB agents who had come to observe the minor damage came across him again and only managed to scare him away with great difficulty, without the adolescent bear showing any signs of aggression.
Finally, in early June, M129 was filmed by shepherds in the same region, near the GR10 hiking trail. This presence in a popular area, along with emerging concern among the rural community, led the prefect to issue the decree. The protocol, which aims to remove so-called "problem" bears, is not new, but it is rarely used against the 83 specimens that were counted in 2023 in the Pyrenean mountains. In 2019, Goiat, an 18-year-old male, had been identified several times after attacks on herds. Captured and released after being fitted with a GPS collar, he has disappeared from the mountains since 2022 and is now believed to be dead.
These scaring measures are used on a gradual scale, if the animal concerned continues to approach dwellings, or if it attacks flocks of sheep too regularly. The first, known as "simple," allows for the use of audible devices such as bells, whistles, foghorns or firecrackers; or smell and light through torches, headlights and all kinds of signals. The second, "stronger" measure authorizes the use of non-lethal fire, from any firearm loaded with rubber cartridges or with double detonation. In the mountains, only a few trained and regulated shepherds are authorized to possess "pepper spray," designed to scare off a bear that comes within eight to 10 meters.
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