“There we are not going to pass in the middle of the red zone, we are going to go around because it is a hunted corner”, explains Camille, eyes riveted on her phone.
On the screen, a map similar to that of Google maps and geolocating its position shows an area in red in a forest massif.
With the pressure of her finger, the young woman clicks on it, and a pictogram indicating “hunting in progress from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.” appears.
"Every time I take my car, I use the Melckone application so as not to cross a hunting area", testifies the illustrator and activist within the collective "Ruraux pas chasseurs".
“I'm always scared when I come across hunters.
I'm afraid of a stray bullet, I'm afraid they'll confuse my dog with a boar… I'm afraid they'll confuse me with a boar,” confides the resident of Seine-et-Marne.
Ditto when she walks in the forests bordering her house: Camille systematically consults the application before starting her walk.
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Launched in 2018, Melckone has 25,000 downloads and is used in around 500 hunting areas, according to its founder, Pierrick Le Cunff, himself a hunter.
The app works a bit like Waze.
Hunters thus indicate the place of their hunt, its date and its time slot.
"We designed it like road applications to report speed cameras," explains Pierrick, who pleads for a "fair sharing" of forests.
"A walker who encounters a hazard while walking can also report a hunt in progress, a fallen tree...", he continues.
A report to see in the video at the top of the article.