An 81-year-old French hunter avoided prison after killing an endangered female bear, which attacked him in the Pyrenees in 2021, has sparked fierce criticism from the Environmental Society.

The defendant said he had no choice but to open fire when the brown bear was attacking him while hunting in the mountains in France and Spain, and was sentenced to four months in prison.

The court also fined 15 other defendants, who participated in hundreds of euros and temporarily revoked two of the hunting permits.

In addition, all 16 defendants must pay more than €60,000 (£50,900) to the Environmental Association that brings civil litigation.

At the March trial in southern France, prosecutors said first, the main defendants and 15 other hunters should not be in the Montvalier Nature Reserve.

Defense attorney Charles Lagier argued that all defendants should be innocent, claiming that the hunter killed the bear because he had no other choice.

On November 20, 2021, two bear cubs appeared from the woods in front of the hunter. Then their mother showed up, accused the man, dragging him several meters. He shot and killed the animal.

According to the investigation, bears (nicknamed Caramel) were killed 400 meters (1,300 feet) outside the authorized hunting area.

When the bears appeared, “I looked at them with admiration,” the defendant said at the trial. "I made myself very young. Then my mother saw me. Her eyes met and she pointed."

He said he had no choice but to shoot.

He added: "She grabbed my left thigh and I panicked and fired. She retreated and roared, she walked around and bit my right calf, I fell down and she was eating my legs." "I reloaded the rifle and fired."

Defense attorney Charles Lagier argued during the trial that the defendant “defendant killed a bear because he had no choice; it was not a criminal charge.”

But Alice Terrasse, a lawyer representing several environmental associations, called for convictions of all 16 hunters and demanded that bears be placed "to make up for tar-like deaths."

Terrasse said in March that such an action would cost €100,000 ($113,000).

Animal rights activists believe bears are the importance of maintaining fragile mountain ecosystems under human activities and the threat of climate crisis.

Before France began reintroducing plans in the 1990s, bears almost disappeared from the mountains and were imported from Slovenia.

France's Biodiversity Office estimates that the Pyrenees are home to 97 to 127 bears.

The presence of predators has led to increased tensions with farmers as they pose a threat to livestock.

But for Alain Reynes of the Bear Conservation Society who paid De l'ours, the case provides an opportunity to "help advance the debate about how hunting and bears coexist".