Once again, this year, the marmot has something to worry about… Since September 10 and until November 11, the animal can be hunted in Savoyafter a decision taken to this effect by the department prefecture.
But the season could be shortened this year. Several environmental associations, such as Animals Savoie (AJAS)L’ASPAS, Animal Cross, AVES, FNE Savoie, filed a summary appeal on October 10 before the administrative court of Grenoble, in Isère, to contest the order relating to the slaughter of marmots. A battle begins, notably with hunters and certain local farmers…
1,000 marmots were killed last year
Banned since 1992 in Italy, marmot hunting remains authorized in France. Last year more than 1,000 marmots were killed throughout the country, including 423 in Savoie. However, the marmot is an animal protected byannex III of the Berne Conventionrelating to the conservation of wildlife and the natural environment in Europe.
But there you go, marmots make farmers sweat. According to the official document from the Prefecture “the burrows dug by the animal in the meadows cause injuries to cattle, sometimes to farmers with sprains, breakage of mowing equipment, damage to watering hoses, etc. »
But from there to chase him away? “It’s a hunt that is done with a rifle and that only continues through tradition,” says Pauline Di Nicolantonio, president of the Justice Animaux Savoie (AJAS) association. It may have made sense in the past. We used the animal’s fat, its fur, we ate its flesh. This is no longer the case today, marmot hunting has become anachronistic. »
Additional pressure on marmots
NGOs especially question the impact of this hunting on marmot populations. “Today there is no official count that allows us to know exactly the state of the marmot population,” continues the president of AJAS. We also do not know, precisely, the extent of the damage that the rodent causes to agriculture and which justifies, for some, that we can hunt it. »
One certainty for Pauline Di Nicolantonio: this hunt adds to the pressures weighing on the mountain animal. Particularly global warming. The regional group of experts on the climate in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region (GREEK-SOUTH) do to remark that “thanks to monitoring initiated in 1990 on the population of the Grande Sassière reserve (Savoie)it has been shown that the size of litters is constantly declining due to the thinning of the winter snow cover which accentuates the cold in the burrows.
“Instead of chasing them away, we would do better to protect them”
Pauline Di Nicolantonio adds “the incivility of hikers or the behavior of certain dogs which also do not help the good health of rodent populations. “Instead of chasing them away, we would do better to protect them,” she points out. We could take a big step in this direction this Thursday. In any case, we will know the follow-up given by the courts to the appeal filed by the six environmental associations against the prefectural authorization of this hunt, during a hearing at the administrative court of Grenoble following the appeal filed by six environmental associations against the authorization prefecture of this practice.