This is important information a few days before the highly anticipated national Wolf plan 2024-2029… The population in France, provisionally estimated last July at 906 individuals, was revised upwards to 1,104 this Friday by the prefecture of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region (AURA), in charge of the preparation of this plan which must be presented on September 18.
The assessment for 2022 was also revised upwards, from 926 individuals to 1,096 for the final figures.
And even the first reproductions observed in the Jura
Coincidentally, the announcement of this revision comes as two cubs have just been observed in the Haute Chaîne du Jura nature reserve, “the first case of reproduction observed for more than a century in Ain”, according to a press release. of the prefecture of this department.
It was the agents of this national reserve, participating in monitoring the species in conjunction with the French Office of Biodiversity (OFB) who detected their presence, according to the same source.
“5 or 6 years ago, we were at 600 and today we are at 1,100”
The counting of gray wolves, the measures to protect the species returned to France from Italy after having been exterminated and the shooting rights granted on a strictly derogatory basis to protect the herds, arouse great expectations among breeders, very angry against The predators.
“5 or 6 years ago, we were at 600 and today we are at 1,100. There is clearly a population dynamic which is very strong. It must be compatible with breeding activities otherwise we will not succeed. These questions will be asked at the national level and at the European level,” the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, told AFP on Wednesday.
“We saved the species and we should congratulate ourselves,” he added. The question is “how do we continue to protect this species (…). Because we need pastoralism to preserve biodiversity, to fight against encroachment and forest fires.”
Growing predation pressure, according to breeders
The reassessment of the number of wolves “confirms the feelings of breeders who are subjected to the pressure of predation on a daily basis and findings of an increase of 10% from January 1 to August 31, 2023”, reacted for AFP Claude Font, sheep breeder in Haute-Loire and representative of the National Sheep Federation (FNO).
It “will allow us to have more samples authorized to protect our herds and our pastoral activities”, he underlined, calling for a new counting method and an evolution of the defense shooting protocol.
For its part, the environmental association Ferus declared itself “a little doubtful about this recalibration”. “We give a provisional figure every year, but it takes time to do genetic analyzes on the indices, which make it possible to finalize last year’s figures,” Loïc Obled, deputy general director of the company, explained to AFP. ‘OFB, in charge of this follow-up.
The assessment is carried out based on clues (tracks, howls, genetic analyses, etc.), the animals being very difficult to detect by simple direct visual observation, according to the OFB.
Limit their number to 500
The reassessment of the wolf population in France comes a few days after a warning from the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. “The concentration of wolf packs in certain European regions has become a real danger for livestock and, potentially, for humans,” she said, referring to a possible evolution of the protection status of the wolf within the EU.
These remarks “delighted” the president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau who pleads to limit their number to 500 in France. “We are waiting for the next wolf plan with the greatest impatience. We cannot, when we are a farmer, produce animals, whether sheep or cattle, and get up in the morning and see our animals lying in the meadow,” he said on Tuesday at the congress of the union of slaughter-cutting companies (Culture Viande).