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Ginny,
<p>I vaguely remember a report that there were only a dozen bears left
in the whole Pyrenees range. I just did a simple search and came up with
the following URL:
<p><A HREF="http://www.ariege.com/pastoralism/bears.html">http://www.ariege.com/pastoralism/bears.html</A>
<p>It describes the recent effort to try to reintroduce bears to the region
from elsewhere in Europe (Slovenia). One statement in that site that really
surprised me was that there are still 5000 bears estimated to be in the
state of New York. I have seen only one pilgrim report on bears. Jacques
Paqué claimed that he saw a bear paw print in the snow at Somport:
<p><A HREF="http://www.hol.nl/private-pages/jp/index.html">http://www.hol.nl/private-pages/jp/index.html</A>
<p>I would think that the Appalachian Trail hikers would have a far, far
greater chance of a bear encounter than a pilgrim spending one or two days
in the Pyrenees. And I don't remember ever seeing any reports of bear problems
in the Appalachians. The <i>real</i> hazard in the Pyrenees is weather,
so it is best to check with the locals on that before crossing.
<p>regards,
<p>Robert
<br>
<p>Gin Brei wrote:
<blockquote TYPE=CITE> I keep thinking about bears in the mountains
and how hungry
<br>or even curious they might be.
<p>Ginny
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