European brown bear (Ursus arctos arctos) foraging among rocks on mountain slope in the Pyrenees. Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

An 81-year-old French hunter went on trial on Tuesday, accused of killing an endangered female bear that had attacked him in the Pyrenees.

The brown bear is a protected species in the mountain range, which separates France and Spain.

Andre Rives was boar-hunting when a female bear nicknamed Caramelles attacked him.

On Nov. 20, 2021, two bear cubs emerged from the woods in front of Rives. Then their mother appeared, charging at him and dragging him for several yards. He shot and killed the animal.

Rives sustained leg injuries and was in a state of shock. A fellow hunter managed to stem the bleeding before he was evacuated by helicopter.

According to the investigation, the bear was killed 1,300 feet outside an authorized hunting area.

The case caused an uproar in the department of Ariege, where hunters have held demonstrations in support of Rives.

"This is not an anti-bear or pro-bear trial," presiding judge Sun Yung Lazare said. Rives is on trial for "destroying a protected species," she said.

When the cubs emerged, "I looked at them with admiration," Rives said in court. "I made myself very small. Then the mother saw me. Our eyes met, she charged."

He said he had no choice but to shoot.

"She grabbed my left thigh, I panicked and fired a shot. She backed away growling, she went around me and bit my right calf, I fell, she was eating my leg," he added. "I reloaded my rifle and fired."

"Bears are threatened with extinction"
Fifteen other hunters who also took part in the hunt were being prosecuted for various offenses, including hunting in the Mont Valier nature reserve, one of the oldest reserves in the Pyrenees.

Around 20 associations had filed a lawsuit.

Jean-Luc Fernandez, president of a local hunting federation, said Rives killed the bear in self-defense.

"He fired," he said. "He should have let her do it? No, he saved his own skin."

The hunters also argued that the boundaries of the reserve were poorly marked.

"You never really know where you are," one of them said.

Photos shown at the hearing showed barely visible signage — red Rs for reserve painted on trees against a white background.

"Your obligation as a hunter is to know where you are hunting," retorted prosecutor Olivier Mouysset.

Activists contest the notion of self-defense.

"To what extent can one argue necessity, when one has committed a series of offenses that led to the death of the bear Caramelles?" asked Alain Reynes of the bear-preservation association Pays de l'ours. According to that group, in 2023, there were 83 bears detected in the Pyrenees and 11 females gave birth.

Animal rights activists view bears as integral to maintaining a fragile mountain ecosystem that is under threat from human activity and climate change.

Bears had nearly disappeared from the mountain range before France began a reintroduction program in the 1990s, importing them from Slovenia.

But the presence of bears has led to increasing tensions with farmers because of the threat they pose to their livestock.

Julie Rover, a lawyer representing some of the associations, said the animal rights' activists wanted to send a message.

"They are not opposed to hunting, but for it not to harm the environment, its rules must be respected," Rover said.

"Bears are threatened with extinction — the disappearance of a breeding female is serious."

A similar controversy surrounding brown bears also exists in neighboring Italy. Last year, an alpine Italian province confirmed the killing of a female bear believed responsible for an attack on a French hiker — despite protests by animal rights activists.

It marked the ninth incidence of aggression against humans since brown bears were reintroduced to the province in 1999 as part of an European Union project, and the first since a hiker was killed last summer.

In September 2023, a man shot and killed an endangered brown bear near an Italian national park, leaving her two young cubs motherless and sparking outrage in the country. The park posted a graphic image of the bear lying dead on the ground.

Earlier in 2023, an administrative court's ruling spared the life of a brown bear that fatally attacked a runner on a mountain trail in Italy's Alpine region.

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