The Montaña ou Morte region of Galicia’s Ourense province is home to wild boar, wolves, and deer, but a brown bear had not been spotted in the region in 150 years. That is, until this week.
The Zeitun Films production company was filming in the region and captured the images of the bear, a male aged between three and five, which is believed to be the first in the region in a century and a half.
Conservation efforts have made the region suitable for bears, and wildlife rangers believe it was probably making its way south from the Sierra del Caurel mountains. Brown bears have been protected in Spain since 1973 and brown bears from Slovenia have been introduced to consolidate bear populations in the Pyrenees, the mountain range between France and Spain.
