Mother bear and cub spotted in Pyrenees

If you go down to the woods today, you might just meet this adorable mother bear with her cub! Especially if you head for Melles, (Haute-Garonne) in the French Pyrenees. The pair were caught by a fixed camera set up by the ONCFS, the forestry and hunting agency.

The cub is just 13 months old and is the result of decades of work reintroducing brown bears to the Pyrenees, but the film by the Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage bear network is a rare sighting as the bears are mainly nocturnal and shy away from all human contact.

The tree shown in the video is a favourite with the bears, however, as two others have also been filmed this year in the same spot.

You would need to be very lucky to spot the bears as they vanish the minute they smell humans approaching – but it could be dangerous as female bears can be very aggressive if they feel they have to protect their young.