Friday, 18 July 2025, 10:43

The presence of bears in the Spanish Pyrenees has captured humans’ interest for centuries. They were present in some areas of northern Spain until the species disappeared in the mid-20th century, partly due to humans not feeling safe living with them in such close proximity. The situation took a turn around about two decades ago in Spain, when the authorities took action to protect the last remaining bears and reintroduce more to maintain the population.

The decision was not easy, just as it is not easy to maintain this objective while defending business interests or protecting the public. In areas such as the Aran Valley, which lives largely from mountain tourism, brown bears were reintroduced in 1996 and since then their numbers have grown: sources from the Generalitat de Catalunya state that some fifty bears currently live there, ten of which were born in 2024.

Many people oppose their expansion but there are also nature and animal lovers who dream of being able to see one of these giant mammals. Aleix is a young Catalan who is obsessed with them and in his free time he tries to spot them in the Pyrenees. He has shared a video of footage that left him “speechless” when he left a hidden camera in an area where the bears are present. The video, which can be watched on his TikTok account, @alnatural02, had over 1.6 million views in just two days.

“Practically impossible”

“About two and a half months ago I left this camera in place, waiting to record the bear,” he explained in a close-up from the middle of a mountain. “Here is what it has recorded” he said in his message, describing it as a “total success”.

The footage shows a snowy night and what looks like a deer in the foreground. A bit later on a wild boar comes roaming into view. Then on a sunny day, a bear appears in the foreground, next to which we can see the ears of what could be a cub, prowling around the area and even smelling the camera or licking it.

A fox and what appears to be a deer paw also appears in the footage and then, another bear appears later on, this time investigating a pine tree in front of the camera. After sniffing its trunk, the animal stands up to scratch its back. It is unclear whether it’s the same bear as earlier or another one.

Aleix gave more details of the footage, which many consider to be the best of bears in the Pyrenees to date. He said that the camera battery can last up to half a year and explains why he chose that particular place to hide the camera: “I usually put it in places where I have found signs of bears,” he explained. In the tree where the bear scratches itself he found what appeared to be bear hair, for example.

“Whenever I go to look for the cameras, I make noise and talk so that the animals that are close to me move away. My intention is not to have a close encounter,” added Aleix. He says the bears are “closer than we think”, as “they pass through many paths that people frequent, what happens is that it is very very very very very complicated to have a close encounter with this animal”. He reveals that he has been looking for bears for a long time and has only had one encounter with them, and that was when he went with a guide. “It is practically impossible” to see them, he said.