In recent days, the animal mission of the City of Paris, which monitors, protects and regulates some 1,300 wild animal species that live in the capital, has turned into a laboratory for experts. The suspense was total. The concern, palpable. And the question, not insignificant: the peacocks which flowed a (more or less) happy life on the shores of Lake Daumesnil, in the middle of the Bois de Vincennes (12th century), were they victims of avian flu, widespread in Ile-de- France ? To which was added a mystery. “We had three dead peacocks, details a source close to the file, but only one body found. »
This Wednesday, the results of the autopsy fell. The only peacock found – whose body had been entrusted to animal forensic scientists, veterinarians from the regional wildlife monitoring laboratory (LRSFS) – did not die of avian flu. He was attacked by one or more foxes.
“We are facing a traumatic death, details the specialist in epidemiology of the team which carried out the autopsy. We have fox bite marks. “All around this artificial lake of Daumesnil, in the Bois de Vincennes, lives a colony of foxes, about forty according to the last counts of the agents of the direction of the green spaces and the environment (Deve) of the City from Paris.
“Good news, according to Michel Neff, forestry technician at Deve. The presence of these foxes is a sign of biodiversity. Their presence shows that there is an ecological continuity. »