SLOVENIA: Slovenia is about to catch five brown bears and transfer them to the Pyrenees - but they face a chilly reception from many farmers when they arrive in France.
Bear experts hope to trap four females and one male this month from a population of about 600 that thrives in the highlands of Slovenia and take them to France for release in mountains where only about 18 of the animals now survive.
Three Slovenian bears adapted well to life in the French Pyrenees after being relocated in 1996-97, although one was killed by a teenage hunter two years later.
She produced at least one cub before being shot, raising hopes among environmentalists that the next batch of arrivals will boost the bear population living in mountains that straddle the frontier between France and Spain.
The last fully indigenous female Pyrenean brown bear - nicknamed Cannelle, or Cinnamon - was shot dead by a hunter in November 2004.
The bear's death provoked a national outcry in France, despite the boar hunter's protestations that he shot in self-defence when Cannelle attacked his dog.
But plans to boost the local population with Slovenian bears have enraged many farmers, shepherds and village mayors in the French Pyrenees, and hundreds of them protested in Toulouse last month about the impending arrival of the beasts.
They say the bears will devour livestock and terrorise local people, despite assurances from experts that the animals are extremely shy and only rarely take sheep or goats, especially from flocks guarded by the famed Pyrenean mountain dog.
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