PACK OF TROUBLE
Do marauding wolves pose threat to the king of French cheeses?
ROQUEFORT-SUR-SOULZON,
FRANCE Emblazoned on every wheel of the most traditional brand of Roquefort, France’s “king of cheeses,” is a logo of Little Red Riding Hood gazing enigmatically at a huge wolf
“My grandfather loved the fairy story and replaced the girl’s cake in her basket with some Roquefort,” recalled Delphine Carles, director of Roquefort Carles.
She remembers, aged four, descending into the dark limestone caves of Mont Combalou beneath the village of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in southern France, to see mould grown in huge loaves of bread and the crumbly blue-veined cheese ripen on oak shelves according to a 1,000-year old tradition.
“Back in my grandfather’s day, wolves still roamed these parts. Now it’s just a story. Today, people talk about the wolf, but nobody ever sees it. Not around here,” she said.
But Brigitte Muret, 55, whose sheep provide the milk for the cheese, would beg to differ.
Almost a century after its disappearance, she offered living proof the wolf has returned to the land of Roquefort, a development farmers warn is threatening their pastoral way of life, the cheese’s existence, and according to Muret, her own.
On a warm June morning, the shepherdess was watching over her flock of 260 Lacaune ewes, the only breed allowed to provide milk for Roquefort.
The wolf had already struck twice in two weeks, obliging her to watch over her flock all day in an enclosed field rather than letting them graze freely.
Suddenly, she spied a wolf. Panic-stricken, the sheep flocked around her.
“I shouted and gesticulated, but the hunt was on and my presence didn’t bother the wolf in the slightest,” she recalled. “Then it charged. Acting on instinct, I ran with my sheep, but they soon overtook me. I, too, felt like a hunted animal, and as the straggler, the weakest of the flock in the wolf’s eyes. I was very, very afraid and thought my last hour had come.”
She said: “I screamed very loudly and finally the wolf realized something was amiss.” After a 15-second standoff, it finally turned tail and sauntered off.
“Afterwards I burst into tears and then became very, very angry.”
Pro-wolf groups insist there is strictly no danger to man, but she said: “I still wonder what might have happened had I lost my voice.”
After returning to France from Italy in the 1990s, the wolf, a protected species, is thriving. Officially, there are now 360 in France.
In the Aveyron, the number of attacks has rocketed from 16 in 2016 to 50 this year.
Around 1,500 local farmers recently descended on the city of Lyon with their flocks in protest. The French state only recognizes the presence of one wolf in the area. The farmers insist they have DNA proof that there are at least six. Many warn the future of Roquefort is in jeopardy if producers are no longer able to respect the appellation’s strict rules making it “compulsory” for flocks to roam on the hilly pastures “every day” provided there is sufficient grass, “weather conditions permitting.” They make no mention of wolves.
As night fell, Michel and Henriette Pons called their flock of almost 1,000 ewes to a roofed sheep fold atop the Cause du Larzac, a limestone plateau 800 metres high. The pair were hard-pressed to coax them inside.
“In the past, we would have left them outside all night to graze, but we can’t afford to take the risk,” said Michel Pons, 54, who lost three sheep to attacks in April and last month.
The sheep, he said, had to graze freely over large areas as the grass on the tough Larzac soil was insufficiently nourishing to leave them in one place.
It was not, he added, economically viable to employ shepherds. It would take 20 fierce Pyrenean sheep dogs to guard his flock, posing a threat to walkers and hunters.
As for high electric fences to replace the flimsy netting they have to pen sheep in today, he said they would cost more than $145,000 and ruin the unique landscape.
“There is no miracle solution; without shepherd, dogs or protection, sheep are ideal prey for wolves.
“But there is no need to be fatalistic,” said Jean Francois Darmstaedter, president of pro-wolf group Ferus.
“The solution isn’t to kill the wolves, it’s to stop them eating the sheep. Once you do that, they turn to other game like deer.”
None of Roquefort’s seven cheese producers has publicly commented on the wolf problem. Some farmers accused them of being in denial about the threat to the appellation for fear of angering prowolf consumers.
Carles, who makes 220 tons of high-end Roquefort per year, a mere 1.3 per cent of the market, insisted the wolf has had no impact as her milk comes from local farms not affected by the predator.
Most Roquefort is produced by Societe des Caves, majority-owned by Lactalis, the world’s largest dairy group.
They were unavailable for comment.
Muret said she could understand that the wolf was “not good for public relations.”
“But I think Roquefort makers will soon have to react. If there are less ewes that eat less, they will produce less milk, and there will be less Roquefort.”
Acting on instinct, I ran with my sheep, but they soon overtook me. I, too, felt like a hunted animal, and as the straggler, the weakest of the flock in the wolf’s eyes. I was very, very afraid and thought my last hour had come.