The government has renewed for 2021 a cap on wolf slaughter shots of 19% of the estimated population in France, or about a hundred animals, according to a decree published Thursday, October 29 in the Official Journal.
If this ceiling, identical to that set for 2020, is reached before the end of the calendar year, it may be increased to 21% for defense shots only, the text specifies.
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These figures were proposed in June by the prefecture of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, responsible for the management of the wolf at the national level, which welcomed on this occasion a stabilization of the number of attacks on herds perpetrated by wolves in 2019.
In 2019, the quota, initially set at 90 wolves that can be slaughtered, had been raised to 100. For 2020, the ceiling is set at 98 wolves.
As of October 20, 94 wolves had already been slaughtered, according to figures from the prefecture in charge.
The French Biodiversity Office (OFB) estimated in June the gray wolf population in France at 580 adult animals, against 530 a year earlier.
The rate of progression of this threatened - and therefore protected - species has slowed down compared to 2019, for reasons that still need to be studied.
In July, the National Council for the Protection of Nature gave an unfavorable opinion to this decree, considering in particular that it "reflects the will of the State to maximize the destruction of wolves to slow down the development of its population".
These carnivores, eradicated by man in the 1930s and returned naturally by Italy in the 1990s, are concentrated in the Alps, the South-East and the East.
