Brown bears long thought to have died out in Spanish region spotted

Brown bears, thought to have died out in western Spain in the early 20th century, have been spotted in the region's Zamora province, experts say. Wildlife experts say witnesses have reported a colony of brown bears living in La Carballeda valley and around the village of Sanabria, and although the statements are not scientifically conclusive the information given has been accurate enough to suggest the animals are likely to still be breeding and living in the wild, ThinkSpain reported Friday. One of the witnesses, a beekeeper who said his hives were attacked by brown bears at the end of May, allowed the authorities to set up CCTV cameras in the area to try to capture the mammals on film and has also taken photographs of animals that looked enough like Ursus Arctus to spark suspicions they had not died out in the area after all. Small numbers of brown bears are still found in other parts of Spain, scientists said, including around 200 in the wild in the northern coastal region of Cantabria. The ones seen in Zamora may have been individuals from the western Cantabria sub-population that migrated south, they said.