Author | Lightnews

Steve Cracknell

@enmarchant.bsky.social

3K followers 340 following 2.2K posts

Writer. ‘The Implausible Rewilding of the Pyrenees’, Nature Book of the Year 2021, selected by Dr Mark Avery, writer and Wild Justice activist. www.WildingthePyrenees.com, www.PyreneanWay.com, www.laSenda.net. En català X: @ovella_salvatge.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · Nov 25

Why am I here? For #naturewriting and the Pyrenees, principally. I’m fascinated by the challenges of #rewilding. I write about that, about mountain people, and about walking. Books in English, French and Catalan.

Six book covers. 1. Footprints on the Mountains, with a walker on a path and an isard. 2. The Implausible Rewilding of the Pyrenees, with a man in a bear costume, the face of the man showing under the bear's head. 3. If You Only Walk Long Enough, with a walker striding across mountains and a red-and-white waymark. 4. Les Pyrénées, Tout en Marchant sur le GR10, with a walker striding across mountains and a red-and-white waymark. 5. Mountain People, Tales from the Pyrenees, with eight vignette photos (of people interviewed) on a washing line, mountains silhouetted in the background. (With Gordon Wilson.) 6. Els Pirineus Indòmits, una Renaturalització Sorprenent, with a split cover showing sheep grazing in pasture and a brown bear in a forest facing the camera. All books by Steve Cracknell.

6 31

Reposted by Steve Cracknell

Bruce Gorrie @bsrg1.bsky.social · 7h

Anyway, we need some joy, so here's the Egyptian foreign minister being given a Lego Pyramid by the Danish foreign minister.

34 490 2K

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · 1d

In the rainforest on la Gomera, Canaries yesterday. Feeling small, overwhelmed, but content to be here.

Laurisilva forest path with a walker just for scale.

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · 2d

A great pleasure to participate in this podcast. Thanks for inviting me Julius.

Steve Cracknell @pyrenees-sauvages.bsky.social · 2d

C’était un grand plaisir de participer dans ce podcast. Félicitations Julius !

1 2

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · 2d

Encounters are rare because the bears were only reintroduced in 1996 and the population remains small. More in my book...

Home

www.wildingthepyrenees.com

1 2

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · 2d

Hunters have some knowledge, but bears are regularly killed during wild boar hunts. Sometimes in self-defense, sometimes carelessly. The general public knows little about bears, and there is little attempt to educate them.

1 2

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · 2d

Hi, thanks for your interest. They were hunting wild boar. Bears are strictly protected--there are only 100 in France, all in the Pyrenees. It is a brown bear Ursus Arctos, same species as grizzly but at the small end of the scale, though males can reach 200kg, 440lbs. There are no black bears here.

1 2

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · 3d

Brown #bear meets hunters in the #Pyrenees. This is how it is supposed to work, with both hunters and bear on their best behaviour. It is not always like that! See my book on the controversial reintroduction of bears. #rewilding #naturewriting

VIDÉO. Face-à-face impressionnant entre un ours et des chasseurs lors d'une battue dans les Pyrénées

La rencontre a eu lieu durant une battue organisée dans la communauté d'Aragon, en Espagne. Des chasseurs, en pleine battue, se sont retrouvés face à un ours brun.

france3-regions.franceinfo.fr

1 1 6

Reposted by Steve Cracknell

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 5d

Private Eye.

Minority representation on TV causes outrage
There has been widespread
way of life and their strange
support for prominent Reform MP
customs, but Reform MPs
Sarah Pochin after she complained about the over-representation of
comprise only 0.7 percent of the
minorities on television.
House of Commons. Yet Nigel Farage is on Question Time
Said one angry viewer, "She's more than Fiona Bruce.
right. Every time you turn on
"I'm not prejudiced. Some of
the telly there's another Reform
MP being interviewed by Laura
my best friends are swivel-eyed loons, but enough is enough.
Kuenssberg."
There are too many people with
She added, "I respect their angry red faces on television."

33 380 1.1K

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · 17d

I wrote about this in my book The Implausible Rewilding of the Pyrenees.

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · 17d

Associations hope for a new trial reintroduction of boreal lynx into the #Pyrenees in PallarsSobirà. When last proposed in the Vall d'Aran, farmers objected, and the project was cancelled. #rewilding

Steve Cracknell @pyrenees-sauvages.bsky.social · 17d

Certaines associations espèrent un nouvel essai de #réintroduction du #lynx boréal dans les Pyrénées, dans le Pallars Sobirà. Lorsqu’il avait été proposé pour la dernière fois dans la Vall d’Aran, les éleveurs s’y étaient opposés et le projet est tombé à l'eau.

Así es el superdepreador extinto que los ecologistas quieren soltar en el Pirineo catalán

Un proyecto impulsado por las entidades locales Amics del Parc Natural de l’Alt Pirineu y ADLO Pirineo plantea liberar machos castrados.

www.20minutos.es

1 3

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · 17d

Bear cub found again by its mother, Sorita. Sorita was brought to the Pyrenees in 2018 to increase genetic diversity and has been living up to her role.

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · 20d

It can be difficult living with bears. At Arreau, in the Pyrenees, the shepherds have been working hard for many years, but still have problems. #rewilding #bears

Steve Cracknell @pyrenees-sauvages.bsky.social · 20d

Témoignage d’Ariège : la difficile cohabitation avec l’ours dans les Pyrénées.

TÉMOIGNAGES. "On ne sait plus quoi faire" : la difficile cohabitation des ours et des bergers dans les Pyrénées, après un été marqué par les attaques de brebis

Cet été 2025, 122 brebis ont été prédatées sur l'estive d'Arreau, en Ariège. Un chiffre qui a triplé par rapport à 2024. Les éleveurs et bergers dénoncent le danger que représente la présence de l'our...

france3-regions.franceinfo.fr

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · 22d

Although there are now over 100 bears in the #Pyrenees, following a #reintroduction programme, genetic diversity is limited. Claverina was brought in to help fix that, and here she is with a cub! #rewilding #bear

Steve Cracknell @pyrenees-sauvages.bsky.social · 22d

Claverina, une des ourses arrivées dans les Pyrénées en 2018, repéré en Aragon ! Avec son ourson de l'année. #ours #nature

Claverina et son ourson de nouveau détectés en Aragon en septembre !😊

YouTube video by Pays de l'Ours - Adet

youtu.be

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · Oct 3

Mind-boggling!

Jonathan C Slaght @jonathanslaght.com · Oct 3

super cool study found human artifacts in Bearded vulture nests, incl. "weaponry like a crossbow bolt and wooden lance, decorated sheep leather, and parts of a slingshot....a shoe made from twigs and grass is ~675-years-old." link to paper: doi.org/10.1002/ecy..... www.popsci.com/environment/... 🧪🌍🦉

Multi-generational vulture nests hold 700 years of human artifacts

Crossbow bolts, sandals, slingshots, and more.

www.popsci.com

1 5

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · Oct 2

I have always wondered what that was supposed to mean...

Reposted by Steve Cracknell

Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social · Oct 2

Tory party’s long journey away from science, reason, responsibility, common sense and truth is complete

Kemi Badenoch vows to repeal Climate Change Act

Tory leader says she would replace it with ‘cheap energy’ strategy, ending decades-long consensus on climate

www.theguardian.com

170 580 1.7K

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · Sep 30

I had the chance to interview him in the summer pastures for my book "The Implausible Rewilding of the Pyrenees", which has just been released in French.

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · Sep 30

Don’t miss Maxim Cain’s graphic novel about the real life of a shepherd in the Pyrenees, published by Actes Sud. Maxim spent four years herding sheep on Mont Rouch, and he knows better than anyone that the job is far from the romantic image held by many.

Congratulations, Maxim!

Loin des clichés, Maxim Cain raconte la vraie vie des bergers des Pyrénées dans « Démontagner », un roman graphique immersif

Dans "Démontagner", Maxim Cain témoigne de son quotidien de berger dans les Pyrénées. Il veille sur 800 brebis, accompagné de son chien Finet. Ce roman graphique déconstruit les clichés idylliques en ...

france3-regions.franceinfo.fr

1 2

Reposted by Steve Cracknell

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) @ukceh.bsky.social · Sep 29

🌾 Behind the scenes as the BBC filmed at our experimental rice trials site.

Part of research investigating what we can grow on rewetted peat while protecting livelihoods & cutting emissions under a changing climate.

Exploring land uses for climate resilience, food security & the environment

1/🧪

A video camera operator looks at two people, one of whom is lowering a chamber into a small paddy field plot

Three people in a field, one of whom is operating a video camera while the other two speak to each other

Two people are crouched down in a potato field, with two people standing nearby, one of whom is operating a video camera

A camera operator is crouched among rice plants while two other people have a conversation nearby

1 5 16

Reposted by Steve Cracknell

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · Sep 25

I honestly don't think everyone talks enough about how amazing it was when the world came together to fix the hole in the ozone layer, so I wrote this:

everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/lets-all-r...

It's a good reminder of what we're capable of.

Let's All Remember When We Saved The World

To remind ourselves we can do it again.

everythingisamazing.substack.com

9 150 480

Reposted by Steve Cracknell

Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · Sep 25

Very excited to share that I'm writing a new book, THE GHOSTS OF CHALK COUNTRY - about the loss of England's chalk downland: a tale of flowers, fascism & freedom.

To be published by @wmcollinsbooks.bsky.social in April 2027:
www.thebookseller.com/rights/willi...

Website: ghostsofchalkcountry.org

20 54 270

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · Sep 24

Visiting the Cascade de Tufs, Jura, France.

Me standing in front of the waterfall. It is like a fountain with jets of water spurting out of ferns.

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · Sep 23

As predicted, the tide is turning against wolves, with the French government making it easier to kill them.

Steve Cracknell @pyrenees-sauvages.bsky.social · Sep 23

L’agenda change. Le réensauvagement semble perd du terrain, face au dégâts du loup.

Sud Ouest @sudouest.fr · Sep 23

Attaques de loups : le gouvernement permet aux éleveurs de tirer et de tuer des bêtes, sans autorisation préalable
🔗https://l.sudouest.fr/Y0Hp

Steve Cracknell @enmarchant.bsky.social · Sep 21

Today, I am with friends walking in the Jura. This is the view from the Dôle, over lake Geneva and the Alps.

Steve Cracknell @pyrenees-sauvages.bsky.social · Sep 21

Cette semaine, je suis dans le Jura. Aujourd'hui à la Dôle, pour voir le lac Léman... et la tempête qui arrive.

Ciel chaotique au-dessus du lac Léman avec un chien et deux randonneurs sur pelouse verte.

1 4

Reposted by Steve Cracknell

Ian Carter @iancarter67.bsky.social · Sep 21

This has received no publicity but is damning. A clear explanation of why this type of reintroduction is not just a distraction and a waste of resources but is ACTIVELY HARMFUL to conservation. Environmental journalists please note and please publicise.

operationturtledove.org/captive-rele...

Operation Turtle Dove’s view on the release of captive-bred Turtle Doves as a conservation measure - Operation Turtle Dove

Operation Turtle Dove is a science-led conservation partnership working to reverse the decline of Turtle Doves in the UK by restoring habitat and addressing key threats. Learn why captive-bred release...

operationturtledove.org

36 76