The sky fell on their heads. It’s not every day that you find yourself with a wolf in your neighborhood. Already having a lot to do with stray dogs, the breeders of Haute Gironde would have done without them. The canine is at their house, and he killed. In this case, sheep which roamed freely in the pastures of this marsh sector on the edge of the Gironde estuary, in the north of the department.
Revealed by “Sud Ouest” this Monday, October 21, the presence of the wolf is making people talk in Blaye, the capital of 5,000 inhabitants located a few kilometers from the meadows where the mutilated remains of the sheep it targeted were found. “In hunting circles, we have been talking about wolves for a while. Three weeks ago, it is said, a herd was eaten in Mortagne, in Charente-Maritime,” says the employee of a bar in the town. The discussions went well… and the rumor became reality.
The Blayais marshes sector, where the attacks took place, is located near the Gironde nuclear power plant.
Fabien Cottereau / SO
“The attack strategy was particular, a stray dog would not have done that”
Confirmed attacks
In charge of files related to large predators, theFrench Biodiversity Office (OFB) is categorical. At least two attacks occurring in Blayais are attributable to wolves. One in Braud-et-Saint-Louis on October 13, within the ornithological site of Terres d’oiseau where a herd of Coastal Conservatory : four sheep died. The other, 30 kilometers further, in Cézac, on October 18: there, the death toll was three sheep.
“During an attack, our attention is first focused on the method of operation and what was consumed on the remains – in total we have 50 analysis criteria,” explains Yann de Beaulieu, deputy to the regional director of the ‘OFB. We also had photos of the wolf taken by a camera trap at Terre d’oiseau. All this confirmed that it is indeed the wolf. »
A wolf was photographed by a trap located in the area of the Terres d’oiseau ornithological park, a nature reserve in Haute Gironde.
Fabien Cottereau / SO
“I didn’t think anyone would believe me. » Kelly Belly is a winegrower and shepherd in Val-de-Livenne. His livestock consists of around a hundred sheep. He was the one who raised the alarm. “I went on vacation, I came back three days later: I was warned that my herd had had a problem,” he testifies. Six of his sheep were killed and fifteen others were injured on August 19. “The attack strategy was particular and the herd was really in an isolated place: the predator really had to detect it and overcome numerous obstacles. A stray dog wouldn’t have done that. »
Kelly Belly now has to park his animals near his home to avoid leaving them at the mercy of a wolf.
Fabien Cottereau / SO
The shepherd then decides to refer to Lydia Héraudregional councilor and president of the Community of Communes of the Estuary. She then contacted the OFB which decided to set camera traps to study the issue. Ironically, it was an individual’s camera that ultimately took the famous photo of the wolf. “This is why we cannot reveal this image, it does not belong to us,” explains the OFB. And we don’t want this to push people to attack wolves, which are a protected species. »
The prefecture recommends penning animals likely to be attacked by a wolf.
Fabien Cottereau / SO
On Monday, the prefecture asked “breeders in the sector” to “shelter their herds”. In Anglade, near Val-de-Livenne, the breeder Lionel Egretier did not wait for this communication to act. His 120 sheep have been herded for a while: “I had two dead sheep in August, I took measures. » He is convinced that it was the work of the wolf: “In fifteen years of activity I have not had an attack, except once, with stray dogs. » At this point, he plans to sell his animals.
Tradition interrupted
Kelly Belly also penned her flock at his home. “We’ll feed them here,” he said. His sheep need a lot of grass. In summer, after mowing, they were released into the marshes which they maintained by eating the grass from the regrowth. With the “return” of the wolf, this tradition is therefore interrupted. Which is not without affecting the 40-year-old shepherd, who started selling lamb twenty years ago. An activity that provides him with significant extra income. The breeder is also a winegrower, and Bordeaux wines are in the midst of a commercial crisis…
“I think that each animal has its place in its environment but, here, we don’t have enough forests for the wolf to live”
What to do? “Let us catch the wolf and release it elsewhere,” he said. There, now, I saw what I heard on the news about my colleagues from other departments. I think that each animal has its place in its environment but, here, we don’t have enough forests for the wolf to live. »
On his educational farm in Cézac, Guillaume Nivelle has all kinds of animals, some of which are popular with wolves.
archives Marie-Christine Wassmer
In Cézac, in the heart of the Califourchon educational farmGuillaume Nivelle brought in some of his fifty sheep – “our sheep and our dwarf goats” especially. And, from now on, the rest of his animals have been put with donkeys and llamas: “I doubt that the wolf will attack them,” assures the breeder.
