France Winds Up Bear Repopulation Effort
Tuesday, August 22, 2006 1:19 PM EDT
The Associated Press
PARIS (AP) — French wildlife officials released a fifth bear in the Pyrenees, the final step in a program to repopulate the region in southwestern France, the Environment Ministry said Tuesday.
Sarousse, a 247-pound, 7-year-old female bear captured in Slovenia, was released into the mountainous French region on Monday, the ministry said. The first of five bears was set free there in April.
Farmers have contested the program, fearing the bears will attack their livestock. More than 5,000 farmers ringing cowbells and setting off firecrackers protested the program in May.
After brown bears disappeared from the Pyrenees in the 1980s, authorities released three bears in the region in 1996, and one of them, Boutxi, killed 165 sheep last year.
Return to Current Events Category Menu
after some well places high velocity loads hit their mark. One bear killing 165 sheep sounds a little exaggerated though doesn't it?
...like their "sheep." LOL
think 165 sheep is enough to feed a full grown bear for a year.
some bear experts here. I say that's a lot of sheep and you do realize part of the year the bear is hibernating right? An average sheep ewe weighs between 150 to 200 lbs. Not sure how much of that is nonedible wool.
Lets low ball it at 100 lbs average per sheep in a herd. That's 16,500 lbs of food 9 months of the year for a bear. Seems like more than plenty to me.
And we do know the French have been known to misrepresent right? LOL
bear anymore. Stop it right now, you kidders.
I have a sheep farm, and my sheep rarely if ever get to 200 lbs. They usually max out at 125 to 150. The average is 110. That yeilds about 40 to 45 lbs of cleanly butchered meat(no organs)I don't think the bear is going to lick them clean, so I think the estimate is a little high. I also don't know the bears required consumption for a day to sustain a healthy diet. I do however beleive it's possible for a brown to kill 165 a year. It might not eat them all, but it didn't say they were consumed.
But I found this on the Internet:
Sheep Statistics
Body Temperature: 100.9° F-103.8° F
Pulse/heart rate: 70 - 80 beats per minute
Respiration rate: 12 - 20 breaths per minute
Estrus ("heat") cycle: 18 days
Length of each "heat": 28 hours
Gestation (length of pregnancy): 145 days
Breeding season: August through fall
Weight: Adult sheep average between 150lbs. and 200lbs. for ewes.
So you don't think farmers would exaggerate to make their case? I know I would.
Cecil said: "So you don't think farmers would exaggerate to make their case? I know I would." We KNOW YOU WOUL Cecil !
Caught any other WHOPPERS from your ponds and try to enter them for a state record or other recognition? LOL
You Calln my sheep scrawny? hahaha
that's also a coward (not leaving his name). It's lonely at the top. LMAOT
Like I said John I don't know anything about sheep. I believe the sheep in question are the Suffolk breed out of GB.
all of the handlers had white flags at the ready in case the bear turned and came towards them