“Yes, I'm here, I was even filmed and photographed while I was walking in a bird sanctuary! »
Indeed, after 100 years of absence, the presence of a wolf has been authenticated in Gironde as announced in a press release from the prefecture on October 21.
The presence was established thanks to images dating from October 13 captured by a camera trap installed in the Terres d'oiseau nature reserve in Braud-et-Saint-Louis in Haute Gironde.
In addition to these photos, there are four sheep killed in Terres d'oiseau and around forty sheep attacked in the area since July.
The autopsy of the animals reveals the culprit: grabbing the throat and opening the rib cage to eat primarily the heart, liver and lungs are the signature of the wolf. Information which proves that it is not a dog and which makes it possible to compensate the breeders who are victims of the attacks according to the 2024-2029 wolf plan which aims to protect both the species but also the breeders .
According to observations, this wolf would be a young male expelled from a pack.
Since then, the Gironde department has been on alert and this presence has fueled lively discussions between those who are worried and those who are delighted at the return of this animal.
The opportunity to return to an animal which has aroused extreme feelings since the dawn of time.
From antiquity until the middle of the 20th century, the animal was considered man's worst enemy, attacking livestock products but also humans.
In France, it is estimated that it caused thousands of victims.
The authorities are taking official measures to fight against this predator like hunts in the 19th century.
The wolf will gradually be eradicated.
Wolf hunting in the village of Saliers, Bouches-du-Rhône (13), December 31, 1860. Engraving in 'Le Monde Illustré' n°196 of January 12, 1861
Its image will be restored with The Jungle Book in which Mowgli is raised by wolves.
The animal is not considered as a ferocious, bloodthirsty beast, but as an animal which has a sense of family, which lives in packs and respects hierarchy. It feeds on animals, but not humans.
In White Fang by Jack London, the wolf also has a positive image, due to a naturalistic approach. The author shows in fact that the wolf only obeys the laws of nature. In the book he embodies the love of freedom and the hatred of servitude and slavery. The reader feels sympathy for the wolf's courage.
White Fang movie 1991
In the 20th century, real specialists became interested in the behavior of wolves. It is disappearing from France and no deliberate attack by a wolf has been recorded during this century.
The wolf then becomes the emblem of the wild and that of biodiversity.
Environmentalists, defenders of the wolf, will be at the origin of European regulations to ensure their protection.
When the animal returned from Italy to France, it became a strictly protected species, with anyone killing it being subject to a fine or even a prison sentence.
At the end of September 2024, European Union member states gave the green light to lower the conservation status of the wolf, from “strict protection” to a « protection simple ». This development, which must still be approved in December at a meeting of the Berne Convention on the conservation of wild life, prior to any possible modification of European legislation, would make it possible to “regulate » (i.e. eliminate) wolves more easily when they are considered too numerous in certain regions.
But environmentalists are rebelling. And the breeders fight back…
We even saw in Haute-Saône a letter addressed to 1,500 breeders on September 23 by the president of the department's chamber of agriculture, particularly upset following new herd attacks, which encourages farmers to « go out armed » and to “hit a wolf” if they see one.
These comments were immediately condemned by the Minister of Ecological Transition, and the prefectural authorities who specified that « killing or attempting to kill a protected species, including the wolf in France, is punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros. ».
All this is the expression of a deep unease in the rural world faced with the arrival of wolf packs.
The problem is all the more complex because no one really agrees on the real number of wolves. If we are to believe the French Biodiversity Office, their population was estimated at 1,003 individuals at the end of 2023. But other, unofficial figures speak more of 2,000 to 2,500 wolves in France. The only certainty, however: their number has more than doubled since 2018.
This is why the government put in place, in February 2024, the new national action plan (PNA) 2024-2029 for the wolf. This plan provides, among other things, to increase compensation for breeders with at the same time a simplification of shootings and a slaughter quota remaining unchanged, at 19% of the population recorded each year.
This is not enough for the agricultural world and too much for environmentalists.
The solution would perhaps lie in a compromise between strict protection and eradication, perhaps by pushing the wolf into regions where social or economic tragedies could be avoided…
The subject is far from exhausted and the animal will continue to fuel the collective imagination for a long time to come…
Pierre DUPOUY
