They found large “spectacle bears” on farms in E …

Ecuadorian experts have found several individuals bear with glasses or Andean in a breeding area in the center of the country. Environmentalists celebrated the discovery because encourage a protection plan authorities of this endangered species.

This was reported by biologist Andrés Laguna, scientific director of the BMC Environmental Foundation (Big Mammals Conservation), who discovered this Sunday the presence of this type of plantigrade in the breeding area of ​​the parish of Baquerizo Moreno. , in the municipality of Píllaro in the Andean province. of Tungurahua.

The animals were captured using video camera traps, which the experts placed after receiving the warning of the disappearance of carrion in some farms.

Thus, they were able to discover several individuals of Spectacled Bear (tremarctos ornatus), among females, cubs and males, which apparently descended from the highlands of Yanganates National Park to the grasslands.

According to the expert, in Ecuador there are about 3,000 individuals of Spectacled or Andean bears, a small part of the 20,000 that live in the South American Andes, which also inhabit the mountains of Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.

This project, Laguna added, aims “educate the population to achieve good management of natural resources “ from the Andean center of the country, where the spectacle bear fulfills a “fundamental task”.

This species is responsible for repopulating and maintaining the presence of many plant varieties essential for the ecosystem of the Andes, a region that provides water to the coastal plains and the Amazon rainforest, he recalled.

For this reason, he said he seeks to improve the management of breeding farms so that the habitat of this species and others that contribute to the maintenance of fragile Andean ecosystems is respected.

For Laguna, There are very few individuals of the species in Ecuador, so it is essential to undertake a protection and education plan for the population to contribute to its conservation.

For his part, the mayor of the Municipality of Santiago de Píllaro, Francisco Yanchatipán, stressed that the conservation project also involves the establishment of a satellite tracking device of one of the spectacle bears found in the area. , to monitor their movements and behavior.

This project also aims to ensure that “the population is involved in conservation plans” of endangered species such as the spectacle bear, insisted Yanchatipán.