Arnaud Verrier and Stéphanie Kauffmann, breeders at the foot of the Vosges massif in the Territoire de Belfort, explain that they are in shock. They say that one of their cows – their herd numbers around a hundred animals – did not return to the barn on Saturday evening. Orchid was missing. The breeder explains that he went looking for her on Sunday morning and found her dead, stuck against a fence at Mont Bonnet, on the heights of Etueffont. She was gutted and had numerous bite marks. Around, Arnaud Verrier noticed traces of canid footsteps, one or more.
“Orchid was a 6-year-old animal, a 600 kg Vosges woman, who was pregnant,” explains Stéphanie Kauffmann. The calf she was carrying was apparently devoured, which raises suspicion of the wolf, in the opinion of some local hunters.
“Several breeders had reported to us the presence of the wolf on the heights of Masevaux, distant by the ridges of around ten kilometers, and also above Lepuix” she continues, even if at this stage no concrete element establishes a wolf attack.
Wolfdogs seen in the past
Wolf-like animals have been seen, and sometimes photographed, in the Territoire de Belfort in recent years. This was the case in September 2022 in Rougemont-le-Château, a town near Etueffont, but also in Joncherey in May 2021. These animals could be identified as Czechoslovakian wolfdogs (a cross between German shepherds and Carpathian wolves) on the run. A wolf was reportedly seen in June in Écot.
A resident of Lepuix also showed us a month ago a photograph taken near his home of an animal that looks more like a wolfdog than a wolf. Hunters also reportedly came across an animal in the forest that looked like a wolf or a wolfdog recently near Etueffont.
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The wolf existed in the past in the Territoire de Belfort. The last wolf shot in the department was said to have been shot in 1920 behind the town hall of Riervescemont, during a particularly cold winter. He was said to have come down from Poland.
Wolf or wolfdog attack, the mystery remains in any case. Technicians from the French biodiversity office carried out bite surveys on Monday evening. The only certainty: these bites, which caused significant internal bleeding, were indeed the cause of the cow's death.
Stéphanie Kaufmann does not hide her concern: “the shed where the animals come in in the evening is only closed on three sides. Knowing the presence of predators just a stone’s throw from this isolated place is distressing.”
