France's Brown Bears

From this little piece at National Geographic, I learned that France has an ongoing effort to re-introduce brown bears to the Pyrenees. A decade ago the bears were nearly extinct in France, with only five known to be alive in the wild. They are a little better off now, but not that much. European brown bears are similar to North American grizzlies, and they are large and fierce animals. And yes, they do kill sheep. So it is not easy to sustain a population in a crowded country like France.