Controversy over the slaughter of wolves in France: wolf population to fall by 2023 May 26, 2024

There is growing controversy over the situation of wolves in France (THOMAS KIENZLE)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Controversy over the slaughter of wolves in France: wolf population to fall by 2023

The estimated number of wolves in France last year was 1,003, a drop of 9% on the previous year, environmental associations said on Thursday, calling on the French government to reduce its quota for the number of animals that can be killed each year.

The drop in the predator's population is the first in almost ten years, according to loupfrance.fr, a website run by France's biodiversity authority.

“This new estimate reinforces the conclusion that the conservation status of the species is not good,” wrote the six conservation groups.

The current quota allows 19% of the French wolf population to be legally killed.

But an administrative source close to the matter - who confirmed the figure of 1,003 - told AFP that the current hunting limits will be maintained, allowing “209 wolves” to be shot.

The percentage is “based on the estimated population at the end of winter, which was 1,104”, said the source, who asked not to be identified.

The number of wolf attacks is also increasing, the source added.

For their part, farming groups argue that culling almost a fifth of the predator's population is still insufficient to prevent what they say is an increasing number of attacks on livestock.

Wolves had disappeared from France but began to return in the 1990s, and farmers say they suffered 12,000 attacks on their animals in 2022.

“For 2024, we expect to see an increase in the number of complaints and victims,” said a representative of the French sheep farmers' group, Claude Font.

“If we maintain 19% of the estimated wolf population, we won't stop the number of sheep being killed,” he said, calling for political action at the highest level to increase the percentage.

- 'Increase in illegal hunting

But for the president of the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO), Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, “wolves are being sacrificed on the altar of agricultural demagogy”.

In addition to authorized hunting, “we are seeing an increase in illegal hunting and poisoning,” he told AFP.

The meeting of the National Wolf Group (GNL), scheduled for Friday, will bring together environmentalists, elected officials, civil servants, the agricultural sector, and hunters.

However several environmental groups withdrew from the organization in September 2023, deeming the government's wolf plan for 2024-2029 “unacceptable”.

The proposal calls for greater support for farmers dealing with the loss of livestock due to wolf attacks, simplification of culling the population, and a revision of the current counting system, which is an estimate drawn up by France's biodiversity authority.

The wolf is classified as “strictly protected” in the European Union, but France's new plan raises the possibility of reviewing the animal's status.

In September 2023, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, warned that “the concentration of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger to livestock and potentially also to humans”.

For conservation groups, however, the drop in the wolf population is a clear sign that efforts to protect the predator are not enough.

The government must “stop advocating downgrading the level of protection for the species”.

By Laure FILLON

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