KEEP WOLF FROM DOOR, FARMERS PLEAD
▶ Amid debate on a future policy on the predator, the French government is being asked to come to the aid of sheep farmers
Wolves have always held a fascination for many, one that has been expressed in folklore, fairy tales and classics such as Jack London’s The Call of the Wild.
But in some parts of the world, the need for a livelihood overrides the romance and fearful respect others feel for the creatures.
In France, a debate is continuing on the government’s policy towards wolves, with sheep farmers calling for help to save their flocks.
“In one night we lost 10 per cent of our flock,” says Claire Lapie, 32, a breeder in Sederon in the south-east Drome department. “A wolf attack. We knew one day it would happen to us. We accept the idea of ‘a share for the wolf’, one or two sheep, but finding 15 sheep eaten, slaughtered or dying, it’s a nightmare.”
Ms Lapie and her partner Yann Rudant have been raising sheep for three years on the limestone hillsides dotted with shrubs. The young couple, who went into debt to buy 150 sheep and build a vast sheepfold, live in fear of new attacks.
The fear and fascination associated with wolves has historic roots fed by many children’s stories, including famous versions by the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault.
“When Charles Perrault wrote Little Red Riding Hood in 1697, it was during the worst series of attacks by wolves, with at least 500 children killed each year,” says JeanMarc Moriceau, a historian of wolves in France. The grey wolf was wiped out in France in the 1930s and returned only in 1992 through Italy, now home to about 2,000 wolves.
Since the Bern Convention of 1979, the wolf has gone from public enemy to a protected species as “a fundamental element of our natural European heritage”.
In some countries, such as Romania and Poland where there have always been wolves, people adapt to treat an attack on sheep “like an accident, like a flock that falls into a ravine”, says Farid Benhammou, a specialist on predators. “But in the new zones of wolf colonisation – in France and in some regions of Italy and Spain – there are major tensions.”
Environmental inspector Cedric Arnaud roams the foothills of the Alps of Haute Provence in southern France in his 4x4. His mission includes collecting wolf hairs and excrement that allow researchers to determine their DNA and classify them. In August, he and his colleagues howl to the wolves to try, by listening to their responses, to determine how many cubs were born in the spring. The population was estimated to be 360 this year compared with 292 last year.
Wolves have a key role in maintaining the ecosystem from the top of the food chain, says Yvon Le Maho, research director at the National Centre for Scientific Research.
“It has been amply demonstrated in the US that an excess of deer in the protected reserves has led to a degradation of the environment,” Mr Le Maho says.
Yellowstone National Park in the western US is a case in point. In 1994, authorities decided to reintroduce the wolf, and since then the deer population has diminished, easing the pressure on vegetation.
It caused other positive effects, such as the return of certain insects and birds, and less erosion, a 2007 study by the University of Oregon shows.
Mr Le Maho says that preserving wolves requires Europe-wide attention because some countries allow hunting.
Sweden regularly authorises a hunting season, despite opposition from conservationists, although this year parliament set a quota of 22 wolves.
In France, to limit the predators’ numbers and to try to appease sheep farmers, the government has set a culling quota for each year since 2004, but under strict conditions. This year the quota is 40. The authorised killings are considered too few by farmers, who have called for greater latitude to fight predators that threaten their livelihood.
“It’s very discouraging and distressing. We feel powerless,” says farmer Veronique Chauvet, who lost eight sheep in October. Ms Chauvet is near retirement, but she worries about the futures of five young farmers in her small village in south-east France.
Some defenders of the wolf also think the approach is ineffective.
“You have to make a wolf learn not to interfere with the activities of sheep farming,” Mr Benhammou says. “But a dead wolf is a wolf that learnt nothing.” Frightening or lightly wounding a wolf would be more effective, he says.
France begins to debate its policy on the future of the wolf in Lyon tomorrow. “If this continues, in 10 years, sheep farming will disappear in our regions,” Ms Chauvet says.
Wolves killed at least 500 children each year during the period in which Charles Perrault wrote ‘Little Red Riding Hood’