Key Facts

• An 81-year-old man in France was fined and given a four-month suspended jail sentence for killing a protected bear.
• The event took place during a boar hunt in the Pyrenees mountains in 2021.
• The hunter and his group were asked to pay more than €60,000 (£51,000) in damages to environmental associations who had filed a civil suit against them.
• The bear, named Caramelles, has been preserved and exhibited at the Toulouse Natural History Museum.
• The incident occurred in the Mont Valier nature reserve, a location where hunting was not permitted.
• The hunter's rifle was confiscated, and his hunting license was revoked as part of the penalty.
• The bear population in the Pyrenees had dropped to about 70 in 1954, but has since increased to about 96 bears, according to estimates in 2024.
• The increase in bear population is due to a reintroduction programme that began in the 1990s, which includes bringing bears from Slovenia.