A wolf was shot dead by a wolf hunt lieutenant on Tuesday evening in Longevilles-Mont-d’Or (Doubs) – a town located on the border with Switzerland -, as part of “a simple defensive shot” planned by the law, while attacking a herd with two other wolves, the prefecture announced on Wednesday.
“This Tuesday, September 20, around 10:40 p.m., a pair of wolf wolf lieutenants shot a wolf on a plot where a herd had been predated on the night of September 18 to 19 in Longeville-Mont-d’Or” , said the prefecture in a press release.
A shot made “under the required conditions”
“This shot was carried out as part of a simple defensive shot, provided for by the ministerial decree of October 23, 2020 and authorized by prefectural decree dated September 19, 2022. It was implemented while three wolves were observed in a situation of attack on the herd of the GAEC concerned”, she also declared. The prefecture adds that the observations made by the head of the service of the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) after the firing establish that it “was carried out under the conditions required by the regulations”.
The prefect of Doubs, Jean-François Colombet, for his part, recalls “the importance of working quickly on a balanced strategy for managing this predation in order to ensure good coexistence between cattle breeders and the wolf, a protected species, on our department “.
In France, the gray wolf, which has returned on its own from Italy, has experienced favorable demographic dynamics for 10 years, and the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) estimates its population at between 826 and 1,016 individuals.