An attack on a flock of sheep took place in Grèzes, a commune in Haute-Loire bordering Lozère. The carcasses, discovered on Wednesday October 30, seem to bear the signature of the wolf even if we will have to wait for the conclusions of the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) to be certain.
Wednesday October 30 around 9:30 a.m., a walker who was at a place called “La Fageole”, in Grèzes, a commune in Haute-Loire, bordering the department of Lozère, was intrigued by the behavior of her dog, frightened . While vultures were prowling, she finally made the sad discovery of the remains of several sheep in a meadow.
Devoured to the bone
Four animals belonging to a retired breeder from Saugues were attacked: a ram and two ewes devoured entirely or in part down to the carcass and the last one injured. All four animals had bite marks on their throats. This mode of operation, in particular the way of devouring down to the bone, is rather characteristic of a wolf attack, which kills to eat.
Since 2014, the wolf accused of 19 attacks in Haute-Loire
Thursday, October 31, two agents from the French Biodiversity Office (OFB) went to carry out an observation, without finding any traces nearby or making any hypotheses. They took samples from the carcasses of dead animals, in particular to analyze the traces of throat bites and determine their origin. Vultures and perhaps even crows took advantage of the dead animals to feed (the eyes had been gouged out).
The owner of the sheep, well affected by the attack of half of his animals, hoped not to lose the fourth which was injured.
Wolf attacks for 10 years
The state of the sheep carcasses eaten to the bone, in an area marked by this type of events, recalls those of the first wolf attack proven in Haute-Loire. It was just 10 years ago, in October 2014. The herd of a breeder from Saint-Étienne-du-Vigan, parked in Pradelles, made the macabre discovery. A sheep had been devoured in the same way and all the animals attacked at the time (around fifteen) had also been bitten in the throat.
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Since then, attacks have been repeated in this area bordering Lozère or Cantal where the presence of the wolf has been proven for several years already. The same breeder from Saint-Étienne-du-Vigan has recorded several losses since then, like other farmers, particularly in 2022 in Margeride, in the communes of La Besseyre-Saint-Mary, Chanaleilles and Thoras, i.e. the same area as Grezes.
