Huelva (EFE).- Researchers from the Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC) have highlighted the need to update the recovery plans for the Cantabrian brown bear, an endangered species, for the conservation of the distribution area of its population that it has expanded to 17,000 square kilometers.
This has been stated in the framework of a study, in which they have explained the change in the distribution of the population of this species from the 80s of the last century to the present as a response to the characteristics of the territory, has reported the EBD- CSIC in a statement.
After going through a reduction phase, in recent years there has been a period of expansion, reaching today some 17,000 km2 of territory.
According to the study, the current expansion of the brown bear could be due to the efforts to protect the species through the recovery plans that the governments of Cantabria, Castilla y León, Asturias and Galicia developed in the 1990s. century.
And it seems that the increase in the number of individuals translates into an increase in the area of distribution, which, according to the results, occurs towards those available areas that have a less humanized habitat and are close to the cores of the bear population.
“The area delimited in the recovery plans of the species only covers around 50% of the current distribution area. This highlights the importance of dynamically updating these management tools so that they are adapted to a population that is currently expanding”, stated Manuel Díaz Fernández, researcher at the EBD-CSIC and lead author of the study.
“It is possible that in those areas outside the area delimited by the plans, fewer resources and personnel are being allocated to population surveillance, to improvements in the habitat or even to the prevention and satisfactory compensation of possible damage caused by the species. on human properties such as beehives, livestock or crops”, he added. EFE