The canid population stopped growing in France and even fell by almost 9% between 2022 and 2023, from 1,096 to 1,003 individuals. This is revealed by six associations (1) of nature protection in a joint statement published on Thursday, May 23. This estimate of the number of wolves was known to the Government for weeks, which, according to the latter, refused to publish it.
This figure, obtained according to the new methods, ensure the transition with the new assessment method announced in the national action plan for 2025. , confirmed the chief coordinator of the Loup plan, Fabienne Buccio, in another statement issued this Friday. The figure, she points out, was revealed during a meeting of the National Loup Group, a group whose associations slammed the door in September 2023.
The Minister of Ecological Transition presented his new wolf action plan and breeding activities on February 23. Two people followed him ministerial orders and technical instructions that facilitate the shooting of predators. The upper limit for wolves that can be collected has remained unchanged at 19% of the population, with the possibility of increasing this share to 21% in case of particularly pronounced predation. In 2023, 207 wolves were killed.
There is no scientific study on population sustainability
Scientists from the Museum of Natural History issued a note in 2019 () which pointed out that the high level of state-sanctioned destruction risks concretely leading to a population decline, but the Government did not take it into account. There is also no recent scientific study on the sustainability of the French wolf population. associations complain. Today, with this assessment concretizing these scientific warnings, it is the Government’s responsibility to immediately reduce the upper limit of authorized destruction for 2024. claim non-governmental organizations, for which the levels of damage to herds have been stabilized since 2017 and reduced by 9% in 2023.
For his part, the coordinating priest, on the contrary, reports v significant increase in lupine predation and does not challenge the sampling pressure level approved atspecies. He invites all interested prefects implement everything measures to support lifters before the arrival of the wolf in the newly colonized departments. Cattle predation increases by 10%: 2023 317 reports of 465 cattle killed on 246 farms, compared to 283 reports of 417 cattle killed in 2022. is confirmed by the peasant union, which demands, Le schedule of cubes and OFB brigades (2) in all departments for target shooting .
Last April, two groups of associations of nature protection indicated that they attacked the new legal texts regulating the killing of wolves before the State Council. These NGOs also condemn the European Commission’s plan, supported by the French government, to relax the protection status of dogs. Our organizations are asking the state to urgently change the guidelines for managing the presence of wolves in our country and to base its choices () on scientific data and analysis and compliance with the law, i.e. striving towards the goal of achieving a good status for the protection of the wolf population in our country six associations are asking the authors of the press release.
Article published on May 24, 2024