Teddy Bear : Luis Oliveros

Who has not had a Teddy bear? And now, in the twilight of our lives, who has not given a Teddy bear to our children, grandchildren, the neighbour next door or someone’s baby? When I was small, the Pelouche you would play with had to be a Teddy bear (no idea why it had to be a “Teddy” and not an Alfonso or a Peter).

Nowadays, there are many more options when selecting the animal that would fulfil the role of being your “Pelouche” for life or at least - in this era of abundance for many - until someone would come with a new one. You can chose not only bears but tigers, cats, dogs, rabbits and the whole spectrum of domestic and non domestic animals. I still prefer the bear. And yet, other than at the Zoo, very few people had ever seen a real life bear.

Encountering a wild free bear, was a pending chapter yet to be fulfilled in my already long life. It does not mean that you go and hug any bear you find on your way - even if you wished you could do it. According to Wikipedia, the Ursidae family (8 species) live across the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, The Polar bear is carnivorous (not that the poor thing has many choices in the Artic) the Giant Panda herbivorous and all the others omnivorous. This means that, except for the Panda - unless you annoy him greatly - they can attack you not only in self defense (the usual reason) but they might also have a wish to try you from the gourmet side. Considering how their family has been treated along history by humans (the reason why they are extinct or close to extinction in most places) we couldn’t blame them for it. So, some precaution is on order. They are generally big, bulky, with large canines and paws, fury, lovely and beautiful. Among humans, reptiles are generally feared and disliked, bears are just the contrary: it is difficult to contain the desire to hug them when you see them. Thus, the Teddy bear, Winnie the Pooh stories, the comic we used to see on TV (Yogi the bear), Paddington Bear etc.

In Europe you can find bears in the mountains in North Spain - in remote and inaccessible places - and other places like in Rumania (Transylvania), where they are closer to human habitats and you even have hides from where you can look at them (and take photos) at ease. That was the final solution, a photographic expedition to see bears in Rumania which I joined this past spring. One more chapter (even if still no hugging) closed. And, without any more introduction, here you have some photos of some female bears with their adorable cubs, in their own habitat in the mountains of Harghita, Transylvania, Rumania.

If you want to see them in Rumania, hurry up. About 2 months ago there was an unfortunate incident in which a bear killed a peasant woman. There are too many, they say. A law has been passed to authorize the killing of 500 bears a year.