Outlook for bears is “bleak” By Paul Brown

The outlook for wild bears is bleak - and even the survival of some species outside zoos is in doubt, according to Bears in the Wild, a report published today by the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Once one of the world's most numerous and successful big carnivores, with eight species adapted to survival in different climates from the far north to south of the equator, they have been gradually exterminated over large parts of the earth.

Bears occur in 62 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia. The most widespread, the brown bear, inhabits 38 states, but its numbers are in dramatic decline.

According to the report, the brown bear is likely to disappear in Western Europe, having been reduced to just six tiny populations. The most vulnerable groups are in France, Spain and Italy where they unlikely to recover unless augmented by bears from other populations to ensure breeding success.

The survival of the bear in Europe is dependent on human attitudes. They are disappearing because of loss of wild places, particularly forests, and conflict with man because of their attacks on livestock and beekeepers' hives. Poaching for body parts for Chinese medicine is also a problem.

In Britain bears were once numerous but were wiped out around 2,000 years go. France had 300 bears at the end of the first World War but there are now only five in the central Pyrenees and three in the western Pyrenees. Last year a farmer shot a reintroduced bear.

Spain has two populations in the Cantabrian Mountains numbering around 80 bears with probably two left in the western Pyrenees. Their decline is blamed on the snaring of wild boar and poisoning wolves.

There are four bears left in the Italian Alps and another 40 to 80 in the Apennines.

Central Europe has larger populations - largest by far being in Romania where communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who had a passion for hunting, insisted on strict protection and re-stocking programmes and built numbers up to 6,600. Large numbers occur close to population centres and often raid rubbish bins in the search for food.

In Russia, where the bear is the national emblem, the brown bear has its stronghold, with numbers at 36,000, and is protected by decree.

Despite its precarious position in parts of Europe, the brown bear's position is in some senses improving because of conservation efforts. But in other parts of the world where human population pressure is greater, the bear's future is more precarious. The Mexican grizzly is believed to be extinct, and the panda, WWF's logo, is struggling for survival in China despite great efforts to protect it.

Four species, the sun bear (south-east Asia), the Asiatic black bear, the sloth bear (Indian sub-continent) and the spectacled bear (central and South America), are poorly studied but all are known to be on the retreat.

The polar bear is in trouble for different reasons - global warming is reducing the Arctic ice pack which it needs for hunting, and because of pollution - chemicals are stored in the body fat, reducing its ability to breed.

Exercises:

1.Study the vocabulary of the article:

· bleak - not hopeful or encouraging; unlikely to have a favourable outcome

· carnivore - ['kɑnɪvɔ] an animal that feeds on other animals

· to be exterminated – to be killed

· to be augmented - [ɔgme̱nt] having been made greater in size or value

· to poach - illegally hunt or catch (game or fish) on land that is not one's own or in contravention of official protection

· to snare - catch or trap

· conservation - preservation, protection, or restoration of the natural environment and of wildlife; охрана, сохранение; защита - conservation of energy - forest conservation - soil conservation - water conservation - wildlife conservation - conservation of natural resources - conservation area

· WWF - Worldwide Fund for Nature

· the sun bear - малайский медведь, бируанг (Helarctos malayanus)

· the sloth bear - медведь-губач

· the spectacled bear - очковый медведь (Tremarctos ornatus)

· the polar bear - белый медведь, полярный медведь (Ursus maritimus)