It was an evening in June 1983. “I watched it for nearly four hours, until sunset. I think it was a female. I had already found footprints and droppings, but this is unforgettable. Walking up a barefoot path, I stumbled across her, like a star stepping onto the stage. I was then able to observe her more, for a long time, almost enter her intimacy by seeing her move, run, jump, eat…” From this encounter with a Pyrenean bear, Jean-Jacques Camarra will feed the story of his life.
A life spent in the Aspe valley, in Béarn (Pyrénées-Atlantiques). In 1981, he was hired as a senior technician at the National Center for Study and Applied Research on Predators and Animal Pests, within the National Hunting Office (ONC). A former professor of technology, since 1978 he has been passionate about this “mythical animal”. “I walked a lot in the mountains, I wanted to be a guide, he remembers. But, at that time, the State wanted to make a census of the number of bears in the massif. My profile appealed to them, I was hired at the ONC. »
His mission ? Attempt to identify the dozen bears still frolicking in the massif and to assess their behavior. Since then, he has continued to track, search and collect signs of the animal’s presence. Hair, droppings, footprints and scratches, but also visual observations, photographs or videos, constitute proof of its passage. On a Scots pine planted not far from his forever cabin, above the village of Etsaut, Jean-Jacques Camarra perfected a first technique. By spreading turpentine on it, he noticed that the bear, attracted by the smell, comes to rub it. A ” mailbox where he leaves his delivery notices he says. We then collect the hairs left there, and a camera, or a video camera, fixed on the tree can film the ballet of the beast.
Unconditional love of wildlife
In 1983, the Ours brun network was created. A titanic task begins. In addition to these clues left on the trees, it is a question of marking out hundreds of kilometers of paths and trails – of mapping the mountain, in short. ” We were leaving at the end of winter, to look for tracks in the snow and detect the simultaneous presence of bears of the same size. “, specifies the one who will later become a naturalist, by absolute passion. Fingerprints are molded, compared, stored. These two ways of locating the animal are still used today. A “systematic follow-up” (observations and records of activities on determined routes) and a “opportunistic tracking” (reports by walkers, shepherds or members of the network), to assess the population, which give rise to the publication of an annual report. An assessment, not an official count. The mountain is vast and the animal discreet.
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