As cited News24xx.com from TOI, a hunter shot dead a female brown bear in the Spanish Pyrenees.

The regional authorities said the reason why the hunter killed the bear, claimed to have acted in self-defense.

The bear named Sarousse was killed in the central Pyrenees’ Barjadi valley on Sunday.

The regional nature protection service had opened an investigation and an autopsy was to be held on Monday.

Sarousse’s death came just 10 days after police in the neighboring Catalonia region said they had arrested one person over the death of another bear back in April.

That bear, a six-year-old male called Cachou, died 50 kilometers further north in the Val d’Aran area very near the French border although the cause of death has not been made public.

In June, another young male bear, aged four or five, was shot dead 70 kilometers further east near a ski station in Ariege on the French side of the border but the investigation has turned up no leads.

The brown bear was reintroduced to the Pyrenees in the early 1990s, with animals brought in from Slovenia.

There are about 50 bears today, but their presence has caused tension with livestock farmers.