A hand-forged metal necklace that Alain Baudouin presents as one of his most precious possessions. With one finger, he traces the hollows and spikes of an accessory designed to hurt. “I put it around my dogs’ necks when they are protecting the herd. With this, the wolves that might risk attacking them don’t come out whole,” he explains. Standing 1.90 meters tall, wearing a red beret and a little shirt against the cold, the president of the Association of Breeders and Shepherds of Vercors-Drôme-Isère suddenly looks very tired. A joyful bustle of animals occupies its shelter, nestled in the heart of the Drôme mountains. Lambs and sheep rub shoulders with Anatolian shepherds – “The best breed to scare away the wolf”, believes the breeder. For him, the predator is an obsession. He fears this wolf. Twenty years have passed since the first attacks which marked his animals.
So many years of protecting themselves, training their peers, denouncing the presence of the animal. Today, the predator is undoubtedly gnawing at his nerves more than his livestock. “We have the impression of speaking in a vacuum,” he says, with wet eyes and a trembling voice. “The breeders no longer know what to do.” On October 24, 2024, the Valence criminal court sentenced one of them to a one-year suspended prison sentence for the poisoning of a wolf two years ago in Crupies, in the south of the department. A mountain affair. But from now on, he also makes his presence felt in the plain. Last year, a wolf attack on livestock was recorded on the outskirts of Montélimar, in the middle of a peri-urban area. “He’s moving forward everywhere,” assures Alain Baudouin. At the national level, these attacks increased by 4.6%.
“There are many”
To respond to the distress of breeders, the Alpine departmental councils – which include Drôme – regularly alert the executive. The announced lowering of the wolf’s protection status from “strictly protected species” to “protected species” by the Council of Europe did not appease elected officials. Worried about “pastoralism in danger”, the departments intend to impose a new count of the animal on their territory. In Drôme, the canine has become the latest symptom of distrust towards the State.
The subject is so flammable that stakeholders struggle to agree on the lowest common denominator: exactly how many wolves are circulating in the territory. A scientifically proven method, based on DNA samples, is used to count them. But the thousand individuals calculated by the State do not carry much weight in the opinion of breeders who, for some, are convinced that “2,500 wolves” live in France. The same goes for hunters, who also count them in the high range. “In order to remedy this, some wanted to try the provoked howls: we place ourselves in specific places in the department, we shout, and we wait for the wolves to respond,” explains Michel Metton. At the wheel of his pick-up, the man travels across the Drôme plateau. For him too, the wolf is an obsession: a wolf cub, he is part of the volunteer brigade that is called in the event of necessary intervention against the animal. Throughout the countryside, he has hidden motion detector cameras. His smartphone is full of photos of predators – without him being able to determine if his system keeps immortalizing the same wolves. “But there are a lot of them,” he assures.
Have time and patience
The question of numbers is crucial, because it allows the State to calculate the ceiling of canines that can be slaughtered. “Unlike wild species like the wild boar or the fox whose management responds to hunting logic, the wolf is a protected species. Its harvest is an exception, not the rule,” explains Antoine Doré, sociologist at the Inrae, author of the “Face aux loups” survey on the consequences of the presence of the animal on the work and health of breeders and shepherds. “Its harvest is limited by a threshold of 19% of the estimated population, which explains the war of numbers we are witnessing around this species,” continues Antoine Doré. “One of the highest ceilings in Europe,” points out Denis Doublet, vice-president and wolf coordinator for the environmentalist association Ferus. In 2024, up to 209 wolves could be killed nationally, a threshold to be distributed between the departments.
According to the December count, 202 were killed, a rate which will be revised slightly downward next year. According to a new estimate by the French Biodiversity Office, published on December 12, 1,013 individuals would be circulating in the territory – up to 192 wolves could therefore be killed in 2025. This estimate should be officially announced on Monday January 16 at the occasion of a meeting of the National Wolf Group, from which environmental associations will be absent. They are opposed to the new “Wolf Plan”, which they consider harmful to the conservation of the species. “In France, everything is focused on exceptional shooting to be able to kill wolves,” believes Denis Doublet. A vision from which the State defends itself, torn between preserving the species and listening to the peasant world. “We seek to maintain the fragile balance of the territories,” notes Véronique Simonin, sub-prefect of Die, responsible for the subject in the department. A sign of local pressure, the prefecture has “undertaken extensive work to reorganize the wolf scouts to intervene within forty-eight hours maximum with the breeders”, highlights Véronique Simonin. Having to intervene when the wolf comes out, they are often called upon for a long and thankless task. “Waiting, in the night, in the cold: you have to have time and patience,” describes Michel Metton.
Puzzle
In recent years, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region has granted subsidies to wolf scouts so that they can equip themselves with a weapon with silencer, “thermal imaging glasses”, as well as “latest generation” binoculars. In his house in the middle of the fields, in Montmeyran, near Combovin, Michel Metton gazes at his brand new equipment. The room is full of stuffed animals: various birds, a deer and even, in one corner, a wolf. “Despite the presence of brigades, attacks still occur,” he regrets.
On November 26, hunters found the corpse of a calf from a neighboring farm in Combovin. “My cows will give birth inside the barn. I no longer take the risk,” annoys Adrien Vigne, at the head of a farm of 500 sheep and 200 cattle. In a month, he will be compensated for the loss of his animal – between 500 and 1,000 euros for a calf, depending on its weight. But in a department renowned for its pastoralism, the situation is annoying. Especially since the breeder thought he had protected himself against attacks, by fulfilling the conditions necessary for the prefecture’s interventions. In seven years, Adrien Vigne has acquired 21 protection dogs. A barrier “effective in protecting sheep”, but which struggles to defend cows. Protection also a source of costs and worry. “Protection dogs do not go well with hunting. There is always a risk with walkers,” he lists.
Faced with this puzzle, the agricultural profession is showing its solitude, despite the support shown by the State. Animal conservation associations, such as Ferus with its Pastoraloup program, try to offer breeders the presence of volunteers to “participate in the monitoring” of the herds. But for many breeders, this “cohabitation” is unimaginable. “We don’t want the extinction of the wolf,” assures Alain Baudouin. “We just need to be able to defend ourselves.” A fairytale fog surrounds his farm. His animals are safe. The wolf won’t come tonight.
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