By independent.co.uk

Video footage of rare Syrian bears foraging for food has emerged from Lebanon, where they are believed to be extinct. A group of young people hiking in the Bekaa Valley in December took
the mobile phone video from a distance, in which a small cub can be seen
running around in the snow with its mother. The cub is estimated to be less than a year old, as after that
offspring fend for themselves. It is thought the bears must be
responding to unusual cold or a threat to be active during the winter.

The video has excited conservationists
as it marks the first sighting of the species in the country since
1958. The nearest other known location for the bear is 300 miles (500
kilometres) away in Turkey.  Assad Serhal, director general of the Society for the Protection of
Nature in Lebanon, called the finding “historic” and a “positive
development”. The Syrian bear was first identified in Lebanon in 1828, but changes
to its habitat and excessive hunting drove the species to extinction
about 100 years after it was first discovered.  There are just one female and one male left in the country at a
reservation in the Chouf mountains. Attempts to get the pair to mate
have been unsuccessful.

The Syrian bear, one of 16 types of brown bear worldwide, lives in
mountain ranges across the Middle East. Its conservation status is
generally classified as vulnerable in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan,
Armenia, Turkmenistan and Georgia, but the species is officially extinct
in Lebanon, Israel, and as of 2009, in Syria.

In winter it hibernates in caves and tree hollows at higher
altitudes, and in warmer months forages for food in grasslands and
forests.  The sighting has delighted Lebanon, where the video has been widely circulated on blogs and in news reports. There are now calls for the Ministry of the Environment to make sure
the area the bears were found is protected to ensure their safety from
hunters.