Andorra la VellaAround a dozen bones have been identified as having been in the country this 2024. This is what the Head of the Fauna Unit of the Government’s Department of Environment and Sustainability explained this Thursday, Jordi Solà de la Torrein the conference ‘Recent history of the brown bone in Andorra‘.
The expert explained that seven genetically identified bones have been confirmed to have made inroads across the country, but there would also be a couple more that have not been scientifically identified. There would be an eighth copy because “he is accompanied by a female and then the passage of two more has been detected and we do not know if they had already been identified because they could not be identified”indicated the head of the Fauna unit. Among these stands out Tuc, an eight-year-old male who has been entering for “a couple of years” and this year he has also entered “several times”, said Solà .
No livestock attacks have been recorded, but there was an incident with a dog near the Comapedrosa in early September causing very minor injuries to the domestic animal due to a claw.
The northern area of ​​Andorra is where omnivorous mammals are detected, especially between Canillo Ordino and La Massana. “We find it in passing, it comes in and out, but it doesn’t stay fixed in one place for two or three months,” Solà emphasizes. Nor is it likely that they will settle in some part of the country to winter because they are “looking for quiet areas” and precisely the Principality is a “very busy area so that there are stable ones” due to the population density and the leisure that is made of the mountain, relates Solà .
In 2023, around eighty bones were counted in the Pyrenees, and the population is expected to increase in the future. “The population will go up, therefore, it may be more common for people to see a bone”, points out the specialist, who adds that “we will have to get used to it”.
The monitoring carried out by the Fauna Unit of the Department of Environment and Sustainability is through photo-trapping or with hair traps, whereby genetic samples are collected by rubbing at these points to find out which specimens they have moved around the country. Direct monitoring is also done through the observation of footprints or with warnings given by citizens. Once the year ends, they meet with the different administrations of the Pyrenees that have bones to count them and follow them up.