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Beyond 2000:
Realities of Global Wolf Restoration
23-26 February 2000
Duluth, Minnesota USA
Brett Groehler—UMD
Benoit Lequette, IUCN Wolf Specialist, France.
Benoit Lequette, Mercantour National Park, 23 rue d'Italie,
BP 1316, 06006 Nice Cedex, France; Marie-Lazarine Poulle, Thierry
Dahier, Programme Life Loup, BP 6, 06450 St. Martin-Vesubie, France
During the 18th century, wolves were spread over 90 percent of
the French territory. Intensive hunting, poisoning, and trapping
were used in attempts to eradicate the species. As a result, only
half of the country remained occupied by the predator in 1895, and
the wolf finally disappeared from France in the 1930's. In the second
half of the century, rural depopulation, subsequent expansion of
forests and increase in wild ungulate populations led to changes
in environment conditions in the Alps. This area became more favorable
to the wolf. This predator returned to France in the early 1990's,
expanding from Italy where their population increased numerically
and geographically since the 1970's. Two individuals were first
observed in 1992 in the Mercantour National Park (southeastern France).
Wolves kept expanding in France during the last seven years; wolf
presence has now been recorded throughout most of the french Alps,
and the local population has probably reached 30-40 individuals.
Wolf ecology sudies, livestock depredation surveys, as well as
compensation of wolf-killed animals and prevention measures have
been financed since 1997 by a joint funding from the European Community
and the French Ministry of Environment, through a LIFE financial
support.
The coordination by the Office National de la Chasse of a network
of 350 field workers has made it possible to follow the numerical
and spatial expansion of the predator at the scale of the Alps,
based on regular recording of direct observations, depredation events,
and wolf signs (scats, tracks and prey carcasses). A more detailed
study was designed at a smaller geographical scale in the Mercantour
area: more than 2000 wolf signs collected from 1994 to 1999 provided
data on which were based estimations of pack dynamics, wolf diet
and predation on domestic and wild ungulate species.
Extensive sheep breeding is common throughout most of the French
Alps. The herds typically reach 2000 head, never attended by more
than one shepherd. Damages to livestock occured in each of the newly
colonized areas, increasing with wolf expansion. They soon reached
several hundred wolf-killed sheep per year. Those depredations were
concentrated on less than 20% of the herds present in wolf areas.
Even though damages are compensated and an important programme of
prevention was launched (shepherd assistants, guarding dogs, electric
fences), negative attitudes increased steadily, raising at the national
level the debate of wolf-livestock coexistence. In this context,
the perspective of further work on human dimensions is considered
a priority.
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