JUNE 7, 2019
by Amélie
Bottollier-Depois
Wolf
populations in the wild jumped in France last year, a faster-than-expected increase
that will prompt the government to increase hunting quotas and take other
measures to protect livestock herds, officials said Friday.
The ONCFS
hunting and wildlife agency said on-the-ground tracking and mathematical modelling had
determined 479 to 578 adult wolves on French territory during this year's
winter count, or an average of 530.
It was a 23
percent jump from the average of 430 adults counted the previous winter.
Wolves were
hunted to extinction in
France by the 1930s, but gradually started reappearing in the 1990s as
populations spread across the Alps from Italy.
They are now
found mainly in the Alps and other mountainous regions of the southeast, where
most of the recent pack increases were found, as well as in pockets of central
France.
But wolves
have also been detected recently in the Pyrenees mountains that separate France
and Spain.
The
population growth has infuriated French farmers who say the predators are
decimating their flocks, despite a series of measures financed by the state to
limit the damage and compensation owners for losses.
Last year
3,674 wolf attacks led to
the deaths of some 12,500 animals, mainly sheep.
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