Bears return to deserted Welsh village during lockdown
Bears have returned from the mountains to one Welsh village for the first time in hundreds of years due to the lockdown keeping everyone indoors.
The village of Llanarthmawr (Big Bear Parish) is named after the creatures, but Councillor Ebrill Siriol said they hadn’t been seen roaming the streets in centuries.
The bears were thought extinct, she said, but there were some rumours that a few breeding pairs were still living amongst the nearby Cambrian Mountains.
“It was bin day yesterdays and I woke up to find one of them rooting through,” she said. “It was scary but also incredible.
“They must have been hiding this whole time – but now that there’s no one around they’ve come back down.
“These houses are mostly Air BnBs and second homes so this is probably the quietest the village has been in hundreds of years, too.
“It might all explain why some tourists who were going up the local mountain, Mynydd yr Arth Lwglyd, weren’t returning.”
‘Pack’
Ebrill Siriol said that she did not mind the bears but that rumours that wolves had been heard howling at night were a cause for concern.
“I think bears have an attitude that if you don’t bother them they won’t bother you but I would like to be able to cross the street without worrying about a pack of feral wolves,” she said.
“Now that it’s April 1 and the new financial year I would hope the emergency services would have the funds to do something about it.
“At least I didn’t wake up with a woolly mammoth in my garden this morning as my sister in Cardiff did.”
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I’ve heard the bears (3 in number) were out looking for porridge.
“Let them eat cawl”!
Turku newspaper today: “Hedgehogs are an invasive species, and we call on all nature lovers to join in the hunt and transport them to Latvia and Slovakia. Cage Traps supplied, though herring, of which they are inordinately fond, must supply yourself. The menace has already reached the borders of Lapland. Save the reindeer, save Finland! (email address below.) Best ever, was when they were knocking down an old building 5 yrs ago: “A horde of old wine has been unearthed in our demolition work, which has reached the cellars. Anyone interested should come to Kaupiaskatu St. this Morning, as we… Read more »
The Wolves are the Cwm Annun so beware the host of death rides within our community ?
Diolch
Da iawn!
April 1 is not the start of the new financial year – something fishy here?
No, nothing fishy at all; the bears ate all the salmon already.
Yeah good date for bare stories
Stori warthus!
Elwyn Vaughan’s going to be furious.
Nothing new here. We’ve had predatory beasts in government for a long time.
No bears but I’ve seen plenty of donkeys in Pontypridd especially around voting time
They are the Yes Cymru campaigners actually, not bears, wolves of goats, but destitutes who had been driven into the hills for generations, now coming down to reclaim what is their own.
April fools??
I am sure I heard the lonely cry of the lesser mountain haggis so one must have escaped from the rare breed farm.
Fabulous…literally! Thank you…I had the best laugh I’ve had for ages! 🙂
Fake news? First I have heard of bears in Wales! Why are they cream coloured? More like Polar bears. Should be a black.
That’s the best story I’ve read at this time of year since the Italian spaghetti harvest in the 1950s. Congratulations!
My niece in Canton saw a koala bear on her fence on April 1st
I think the reason these have survived is more likely thanks to Beeching axing the railways. Much more difficult journey from Peru.