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Wolves are at war with France Macron has betrayed farmers yet again

It is starting to feel like a war. (Getty)


May 17, 2023   5 mins

The wolf is at the door. My local newspaper Sud-Ouest has informed me that I and the rest of the inhabitants of Charente Maritime “must prepare for the return of wolves”. I howled, in anguish. There are already wolves to the south, in the Lot département. And they do what wolves do: eat sheep. A single female wolf near Caniac-du-Causse has killed 120 ewes in just one year. “One can’t live with this,” berger Pascal Angelibert told Sud-Ouest. “It’s the wolf or us.”

He spoke for the nation’s 60,000 sheep-keepers. We live in fear. France is currently losing 15,000 livestock per annum to the 140 or so wolf packs that run within these borders. The European grey wolf is a canny apex predator that preys on the easiest, largest lump of protein it can kill for the least expenditure of energy: hello sheep. But also on the menu are goats, cattle, and horses. Earlier this month, wolves killed a red deer — not in the wild, but in someone’s back garden.

Humans are also now threatened by the wolf. In February, Joseph Uto, a town councillor in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, was checking the local water supply when he was surrounded by five wolves — one of which charged him. Uto, a former soldier, managed to hit the aggressor away. After 30 minutes the pack withdrew. The incident is the first incidence of aggression towards humans since the wolf came back to France in 1992. The wolves seem to be losing their atavistic fear of humans.

The attacks on livestock, and the close encounters with humans, will logically only multiply. The national wolf-pack, which now numbers around 1,000 specimens, is enlarging by between 13% and 20% each year. In its way, the lupine advance across France is magnificent. Hunted to extinction in the Thirties, the wolf returned 30 years ago, when a small number of Canis lupus lupus crossed over the Alps from Italy. Since then, wolves have been seen in over half of metropolitan France’s 96 départements. Wolves spread naturally: annually, the previous year’s cubs depart the main pack to seek territories elsewhere. They have been spotted on the outskirts of Paris, in the environs of Dieppe. They have swum rivers, nipped across autoroutes.

Wolves also spread unnaturally. Their progress across France is state-aided. In 2018, Macron’s centrist government published a 100-page “Wolf Action Plan”, announcing its intention to increase the number of the predators on the mainland to 500 by 2023. The move was intended to increase biodiversity — or at least the modish type of biodiversity propagated by celebrity ecologist, Nicholas Hulot, recruited to Macron’s government to green its credentials. To the surprise of no-one in French agriculture, the target figure was easily doubled by the national wolf pack in that time span.

After all, the wolf in France has rigorous protection. Like the rest of the EU signatories to the 1979 Berne Convention and the 1992 EU Habitats Directive, France gives the wolf protected species status, meaning that it can only be controlled by “lethal means” in exceptional circumstances. Effectively, a flock has to be under direct attack for a farmer to shoot a wolf justifiably. To assuage farmers, the state agreed a 10% annual cull — undertaken by the “Wolf Brigade” from the Office for Hunting and Wildlife — which manifestly failed. Ministers have now raised the threshold to 19%.

This is unlikely to satisfy France’s shepherds — or, indeed, France’s already dyspeptic tax papers. In the event of a wolf attack, livestock breeders receive compensation for a replacement animal. Paris also grants subsidies for the building of electrified wolf-defences, “reinforced human presence” (assistant shepherds), and the breeding and training of livestock guard dogs — usually Pyrenean Mountain Dogs known locally as “Patou”. By 2020, the French government had already financed 4,258 of livestock guard dogs, and was sloshing out €38 million in anti-wolf measures and compensation. According to INRAE, the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, the cost of protecting sheep from wolves is “exploding”.

The money is not well-spent. In the French alpine region, an area where wolves have been present for a quarter century, more than 90% of successful attacks take place on farms that have already adopted the recommended means of protection. In a sober, even downright pessimistic report, INRAE concluded that wolves are “probably taking advantage of their legal status as a strictly protected species”. They have learned to circumvent methods of herd protection.

The boom in Patou is also causing trouble: they only look cuddly. Shepherds may need a dozen dogs to protect their flocks, and 105 people reported being bitten by a Pyrenean mountain dog in 2022. Timothée Dufour, a lawyer who counts shepherds among his clients, said there had been a “multiplication of conflicts” linked to dogs, and a notable increase in lawsuits against sheep-farmers.

Meanwhile, the compensation for dead sheep is inadequate, and only covers mortalities. There are indirect impacts of predation: stressed survivors lose weight, miscarry, reduce their milk supply, and sometimes refuse to graze on the places where they experienced a wolf attack for three years. One breeder, who was reimbursed €1,850 by the state, has estimated her losses at €24,000.

The wolf’s most fervent supporters are the rewilders, who see it as a key player in plans for large-scale restoration of the wildwood that covered France in the primordial mist. Theoretically, the wolf will keep down boar and deer numbers. But the world has moved on from the hunter-gatherer Stone Age; sheep farming in France has created grassland landscapes of globally important biodiversity. The Causse in the Aveyron, for instance, is a Unesco heritage site precisely because of the 2,000-year-old relationship between pastoral farming and the environment.

Nor is the return of the wolf simply a problem for France. In Germany the wolf-pack is growing by 38% annually. In the Netherlands, to deter wolves from approaching humans, authorities are experimenting with paintball guns. In Sweden, licences to kill wolves are being issued to local hunters in blatant disregard for the EU’s wolf-protection legislation. Faced with farmer protests, the European Parliament last Autumn voted to downgrade the wolf’s protected status to facilitate more culling. The Commission, however, appears disinclined to take notice. (Although one assumes that Ursula Von der Leyen, the Commission President might at least lend a sympathetic ear: Dolly, her pet pony, was killed by a wolf in September.)

Either way, the culling of wolves may be counterproductive: according to a 2014 study in the US, if culling is restricted to part of the pack, the remainder break up into several breeding pairs, leading to a higher population and more attacks on livestock in the future. But if selective shooting does not work, and if fences and dogs do not work, then the return of the wolf is now a problem without a solution, short of the animal’s absolute eradication in livestock areas — or the eradication of livestock and their farmers. It’s them or us.

After reading Sud-Ouest’s wolf warning of wolves moving into Charente Maritime, I went to look at my sheep — themselves grazers of biodiverse grassland, rich in fauna such as stone curlew and flora such as pyramid orchids. My shepherd neighbour Jean-Claude passed me on the track, and I asked him his view on the coming of the wolf. He pointed up the hill towards the forest: “We’ll need walls of electric fences everywhere to protect us. It will be like living in a prisoner of war camp.” He has a point. It is starting to feel like a war. And it’s the traditional shepherds, rural communities, and nature itself being taken prisoner.


John Lewis-Stempel is a farmer and writer on nature and history. His most recent books are The Sheep’s Tale and Nightwalking.

JLewisStempel

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J Bryant
J Bryant
1 year ago

I love the outdoors and have hiked extensively in the Western US where we still have some real wilderness. Even outside the famous Yellowstone National Park, there are some wolves, and even grizzlies, in the West, especially the northwest where they travel south from BC and keep a very low profile. The land is big enough to accommodate them in small numbers without conflicts with humans.
I’m sorry to say it, but I’m not convinced wolves have a place in densely populated countries such as France. There’s not enough open space for the animals to wander, hunt and generally be themselves.

Last edited 1 year ago by J Bryant
J Bryant
J Bryant
1 year ago

I love the outdoors and have hiked extensively in the Western US where we still have some real wilderness. Even outside the famous Yellowstone National Park, there are some wolves, and even grizzlies, in the West, especially the northwest where they travel south from BC and keep a very low profile. The land is big enough to accommodate them in small numbers without conflicts with humans.
I’m sorry to say it, but I’m not convinced wolves have a place in densely populated countries such as France. There’s not enough open space for the animals to wander, hunt and generally be themselves.

Last edited 1 year ago by J Bryant
Emmanuel MARTIN
Emmanuel MARTIN
1 year ago

Macron is part of cosmopolitan urban elites, and he profundly despises “rural deep France”. No wonder he betrayed farmers

Last edited 1 year ago by Emmanuel MARTIN
Emmanuel MARTIN
Emmanuel MARTIN
1 year ago

Macron is part of cosmopolitan urban elites, and he profundly despises “rural deep France”. No wonder he betrayed farmers

Last edited 1 year ago by Emmanuel MARTIN
jane baker
jane baker
1 year ago

It’s about making the countryside in accessible. Even for people who live there it sounds like. Ive seen two different tv documentaries about the return of the wolf in Sweden (when I had a tv) and both told the same story. Idealistic nature lovers imagine the noble wild wolf will inhabit the high mountains and roam the forests well away from the haunts of man because wolves are noble creatures,filled with the spirit of freedom. But actually the wolves are crafty and lazy just like people and they quickly cotton on that instead of wasting time seeking prey in the wilderness they can just do a pick + mix from the farmers pens in the farmyard. So the wolves were hanging about in the trees around many farmyards,just out of sight but you knew they were there. It was spooky,scary and the farmers wives couldn’t let their children out to play,or wouldn’t,which I understand. This rewilding,it did appeal to me at first but since I cottoned on that it’s about reducing agriculture,thus food production and making access to the countryside unpleasant at the least,well I am more sceptical now.

Ted Ditchburn
Ted Ditchburn
1 year ago
Reply to  jane baker

Maybe they’ll bring them in to Netherlands where they are trying to get rid of their farmers as well.

Ted Ditchburn
Ted Ditchburn
1 year ago
Reply to  jane baker

Maybe they’ll bring them in to Netherlands where they are trying to get rid of their farmers as well.

jane baker
jane baker
1 year ago

It’s about making the countryside in accessible. Even for people who live there it sounds like. Ive seen two different tv documentaries about the return of the wolf in Sweden (when I had a tv) and both told the same story. Idealistic nature lovers imagine the noble wild wolf will inhabit the high mountains and roam the forests well away from the haunts of man because wolves are noble creatures,filled with the spirit of freedom. But actually the wolves are crafty and lazy just like people and they quickly cotton on that instead of wasting time seeking prey in the wilderness they can just do a pick + mix from the farmers pens in the farmyard. So the wolves were hanging about in the trees around many farmyards,just out of sight but you knew they were there. It was spooky,scary and the farmers wives couldn’t let their children out to play,or wouldn’t,which I understand. This rewilding,it did appeal to me at first but since I cottoned on that it’s about reducing agriculture,thus food production and making access to the countryside unpleasant at the least,well I am more sceptical now.

Mike Doyle
Mike Doyle
1 year ago

Wolves are at war with France – my money’s on the wolves…

Mike Doyle
Mike Doyle
1 year ago

Wolves are at war with France – my money’s on the wolves…

Anthony Roe
Anthony Roe
1 year ago

Would do Western Europeans good to be re-acquainted with the ‘Wild Wood’ and to feel a frisson of primordial fear.

Anthony Roe
Anthony Roe
1 year ago

Would do Western Europeans good to be re-acquainted with the ‘Wild Wood’ and to feel a frisson of primordial fear.

philip kern
philip kern
1 year ago

When I was a teen with an interest in the environment, wolves in the US were thought to only exist on Isle Royale and were considered an endangered species–as was the bald eagle. Wolves (and bears) are now common enough in places like Wisconsin that they reintroduced hunting, and bald eagles nest in all but one county. I’ve been wondering for a while how people will cope if they succeed in restoring the environment to the extent that larger predators become abundant. Wisconsin now has more trees than ever in its history but I wouldn’t like to raise children in a small town where wolves and bears live on the outskirts.

Last edited 1 year ago by philip kern
Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
1 year ago
Reply to  philip kern

We need more wolves, bears, cougars, and squirrels in our wild places ….

Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
1 year ago
Reply to  philip kern

We need more wolves, bears, cougars, and squirrels in our wild places ….

philip kern
philip kern
1 year ago

When I was a teen with an interest in the environment, wolves in the US were thought to only exist on Isle Royale and were considered an endangered species–as was the bald eagle. Wolves (and bears) are now common enough in places like Wisconsin that they reintroduced hunting, and bald eagles nest in all but one county. I’ve been wondering for a while how people will cope if they succeed in restoring the environment to the extent that larger predators become abundant. Wisconsin now has more trees than ever in its history but I wouldn’t like to raise children in a small town where wolves and bears live on the outskirts.

Last edited 1 year ago by philip kern
Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
1 year ago

Oh, boo hoo hoo. The big bad wolf. I say we need wolves in hundreds of thousands roaming through France; people should live in walled cities and only leave in convoys. The time of the wolf has come!

Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
1 year ago

Oh, boo hoo hoo. The big bad wolf. I say we need wolves in hundreds of thousands roaming through France; people should live in walled cities and only leave in convoys. The time of the wolf has come!

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago

‘Never cry Wolf’ by Farley Mowat anyone?

Oliver Craig
Oliver Craig
1 year ago

Read it years ago and it still shows the wolf in a different light. Can’t remember a species more cruel and destructive than the human. Sheep cause untold damage to the ecosystem.

Oliver Craig
Oliver Craig
1 year ago

Read it years ago and it still shows the wolf in a different light. Can’t remember a species more cruel and destructive than the human. Sheep cause untold damage to the ecosystem.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago

‘Never cry Wolf’ by Farley Mowat anyone?

Clueless mgsm1uk
Clueless mgsm1uk
1 year ago

I live in the Lot.
Not seen one yet but a friend who lives in the forest up the Cele valley has sent photos of the signs going up to warn of them.

Ian Lessard
Ian Lessard
1 year ago

The Lot. Is that a reference to Lothian?

Ian Lessard
Ian Lessard
1 year ago

The Lot. Is that a reference to Lothian?

Clueless mgsm1uk
Clueless mgsm1uk
1 year ago

I live in the Lot.
Not seen one yet but a friend who lives in the forest up the Cele valley has sent photos of the signs going up to warn of them.

Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
1 year ago

Sheep are a blight on the landscape:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/meet-the-greatest-threat-to-our-countryside-sheep/
And a few wolves will soon sort out all the insufferable urban hikers and the booze n techno chavs invading isolated farms.

Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
1 year ago

Sheep are a blight on the landscape:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/meet-the-greatest-threat-to-our-countryside-sheep/
And a few wolves will soon sort out all the insufferable urban hikers and the booze n techno chavs invading isolated farms.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago

“Meanwhile, the compensation for dead sheep is inadequate, and only covers mortalities.”!?

Really, how extraordinary that it should only cover MORTALITIES!?

Otherwise an hysterical rant and a blatant attempt to grab even more compensation. Perhaps France has too many sheep and far too many ‘petite’ farmers?

As for ‘apex predator’ there is only ONE apex predator on this Planet, a superannuated chimpanzee sometimes referred to as h*mo sapiens. Eight billion and rising at the last count. Something must be done.

I look forward to Mr Wolf & Co roaming the Monnow Valley in the not too distant future.

Bruno Lucy
Bruno Lucy
1 year ago

You need to take a hike in a wolves infested forest. Then you will be entitled to a city slicker’s opinion

Stephen Taylor
Stephen Taylor
1 year ago
Reply to  Bruno Lucy

I’ve hiked and camped in wolf and bear country in Sweden and the US. Things one does to reduce the risk, but it’s definitely not perfectly safe.

So, question for you. Why should it be?

Ted Ditchburn
Ted Ditchburn
1 year ago
Reply to  Stephen Taylor

I don’t know what job you do but if Wolves were putting you out of business and you couldn’t do anything about it you would be mad about it.

Bruno Lucy
Bruno Lucy
1 year ago
Reply to  Stephen Taylor

Sweden ?? exactly where I am now and let me tell you farmers, especially Sami, do take their fate into their own hands. As to French sheep farmers…..or even horse owners….if I was one of them, I would shoot a wolf without pause. Everything has been said by the author when it comes to the stress surviving animals endure when they survive, not to mention the farmers themselves. Yours is the typical city bloke reply. Adrenaline kick…..mind you….in Sweden a very mild one……so you can impress your audience at a posh diner party once back in the city…..I was there and I saw a wolf.
Wolves like bears and wild pigs are very opportunistic animals. Why bother chase a deer when a garbage can can offer you all of what you need…..and that’s near towns. Wolves have been sighted near small towns in Sweden.
Since you refer to Sweden, no parent there when living in woodlands like Dalarna, lets his 6 year old wait for the morning bus to school bus alone on the road side. Do I need to remind you of this Italian jogger who was mauled by a bear only a few months ago ?
Bears, wolves….have no place in small countries like France where the author lives…..simple as that.

Ted Ditchburn
Ted Ditchburn
1 year ago
Reply to  Stephen Taylor

I don’t know what job you do but if Wolves were putting you out of business and you couldn’t do anything about it you would be mad about it.

Bruno Lucy
Bruno Lucy
1 year ago
Reply to  Stephen Taylor

Sweden ?? exactly where I am now and let me tell you farmers, especially Sami, do take their fate into their own hands. As to French sheep farmers…..or even horse owners….if I was one of them, I would shoot a wolf without pause. Everything has been said by the author when it comes to the stress surviving animals endure when they survive, not to mention the farmers themselves. Yours is the typical city bloke reply. Adrenaline kick…..mind you….in Sweden a very mild one……so you can impress your audience at a posh diner party once back in the city…..I was there and I saw a wolf.
Wolves like bears and wild pigs are very opportunistic animals. Why bother chase a deer when a garbage can can offer you all of what you need…..and that’s near towns. Wolves have been sighted near small towns in Sweden.
Since you refer to Sweden, no parent there when living in woodlands like Dalarna, lets his 6 year old wait for the morning bus to school bus alone on the road side. Do I need to remind you of this Italian jogger who was mauled by a bear only a few months ago ?
Bears, wolves….have no place in small countries like France where the author lives…..simple as that.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Bruno Lucy

Ever been to Quislington?

Stephen Taylor
Stephen Taylor
1 year ago
Reply to  Bruno Lucy

I’ve hiked and camped in wolf and bear country in Sweden and the US. Things one does to reduce the risk, but it’s definitely not perfectly safe.

So, question for you. Why should it be?

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Bruno Lucy

Ever been to Quislington?

Ted Ditchburn
Ted Ditchburn
1 year ago

That is a really daft take on it.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Ted Ditchburn

Correct and very disappointing that is has only garnered a mere ten ‘thumbs down’.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Ted Ditchburn

Correct and very disappointing that is has only garnered a mere ten ‘thumbs down’.

harry storm
harry storm
1 year ago

Start by culling yourself.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  harry storm

After you sir!
Given your preposterous nomen that shouldn’t be too difficult?

Last edited 1 year ago by Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  harry storm

After you sir!
Given your preposterous nomen that shouldn’t be too difficult?

Last edited 1 year ago by Charles Stanhope
Bruno Lucy
Bruno Lucy
1 year ago

You need to take a hike in a wolves infested forest. Then you will be entitled to a city slicker’s opinion

Ted Ditchburn
Ted Ditchburn
1 year ago

That is a really daft take on it.

harry storm
harry storm
1 year ago

Start by culling yourself.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago

“Meanwhile, the compensation for dead sheep is inadequate, and only covers mortalities.”!?

Really, how extraordinary that it should only cover MORTALITIES!?

Otherwise an hysterical rant and a blatant attempt to grab even more compensation. Perhaps France has too many sheep and far too many ‘petite’ farmers?

As for ‘apex predator’ there is only ONE apex predator on this Planet, a superannuated chimpanzee sometimes referred to as h*mo sapiens. Eight billion and rising at the last count. Something must be done.

I look forward to Mr Wolf & Co roaming the Monnow Valley in the not too distant future.