French hunter on trial for killing mother bear that mauled him

An 81-year-old hunter who killed a bear that was mauling him has gone on trial in a case that has fanned the conflict between land traditionalists and wildlife defenders in the French Pyrenees.

André Rives is charged with destroying a protected animal and 15 fellow hunters are also in the dock on lesser charges at Foix, in the Ariège, for their role in a wild boar drive that went wrong on an afternoon in November 2021.

The death of the 140kg she-bear, named Caramelles, has fuelled the wildlife war which started after 1996, when brown bears were first brought from Slovenia to revive the near-extinct Pyrenean population.

Farmers are sick of their sheep being ravaged, while conservationists say the bear population remains under threat,