Traces that leave little room for doubt. A lone gray wolf has been identified near Chasseneuil (Indre), near Châteauroux, the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) announced on Wednesday.
The “typical” footprints found on Tuesday “clearly showed that they were those of a wolf. We have taken hairs, which are going to go into genetic analysis, to determine the origin of the wolf, ”explained to AFP Paul Hurel, animator of the wolf network within the regional branch of the OFB. The prefecture of Indre had confirmed in a press release the presence of a wolf, photographed "in a grain field in the town of Chasseneuil in the southwest of the department".
530 individuals in France
In addition, the OFB received several new reports on Wednesday. "We will treat them as soon as possible, go on site to see if there are any fingerprints," said Paul Hurel. “We can't talk about installation. It is a single individual. Young people are excluded from the packs and seek new territories. They have a great capacity for dispersion. The closest packs with reproduction are in the north of the Alps, with areas of permanent presence observed in Burgundy Franche-Comté ”, he continued.
Canis lupus lupus, Latin name for the common gray wolf, is therefore identified a second time in the Center-Val de Loire region. A first canine was identified in August 2019 north of the Eure-et-Loir. The OFB has identified 97 areas of permanent presence of wolves on French territory, mainly in the Alps, the Southeast and the East. At the end of winter 2018/2019, the wolf population in France was estimated at around 530 individuals.
The growing presence of these carnivorous predators, eradicated in the 1930s and returned naturally by Italy in the 1990s, is fought by breeders who denounce attacks against their herds. The prefecture of Indre recommended to breeders "increased vigilance in the surveillance of their herds".
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