A black wolf from Canada captured by agents of the French Biodiversity Office on November 5, 2020 in the Mercantour -
OFB
On October 2, 2020, the violence of the storm and floods partially destroyed Alpha Park, which hosted thirteen wolves in the Alpes-Maritimes.
Two were found dead, two more could have been shot and six were recovered.
The French Biodiversity Office is still on the trail of the other three while the park should be rebuilt.
On October 2, the fury of the elements had not spared Alpha Park, killing two of the three Arctic wolves.
Partially destroyed, allowing eight of the eleven other specimens to escape, the animal center of Saint-Martin-Vésubie, in the Nice hinterland (Alpes-Maritimes), is to be rebuilt.
In the meantime, agents from the French Biodiversity Office (OFB) are still on the trail of the missing.
Where is the recovery operation?
The three Central European wolves, whose only enclosure had not been destroyed by storm Alex, were transferred to a refuge on October 8.
Since then, three of the seven black wolves in Canada that left in the wild have been able to be “darted” with anesthetics.
Drakkar, a male, Hoona, the alpha female, and Healy, another female were also placed.
"For two others, we have convergent testimonies, but not the formal proof, that they would have been killed, advance Eric Hansen, the regional director of the OFB.
A breeder said in front of me that he would be ready to shoot one of the wolves if he saw any.
"
The teams of the French Biodiversity Office in a safe house to be able to anesthetize the wolves escaped from Alpha Park - OFB
The four people mandated by the office to hide in the Mercantour are still on the trail of the last two: Beyla, and Kahn, the alpha male.
The first one has not yet been allowed to come close enough by the officers, who must be within 15 m to put her to sleep.
The second is a tireless walker.
One day seen in Vésubie, he was seen in Roya, 40 km away, the next day.
What about the third arctic wolf?
His trail has been lost and his fate questions.
Antoine Delahaye, the director of the mixed union Vésubie Valdeblore, which manages the park, thinks that this female, "fearful and inexperienced" may have been "injured in the storm" and that she is "probably dead".
"In the Alpha park, she had shown an instinctive behavior, trying to catch corvids", explains Eric Hansen, estimating for his part that she is "perhaps in the process of acclimating".
To become wild in other words, and that would not be a good thing.
As with the other two black wolves if they were to survive without being captured.
“The introduction of a non-native species is the third cause of biodiversity loss,” notes Eric Hansen.
Hybridizations could occur if these wolves come across the endemic packs of Mercantour.
What future for the park?
The president of the department Charles-Ange Ginésy has positioned himself for it to reopen in the summer of 2021. The wolves "transferred for their protection remain under the responsibility of the park and are doomed to find it", he explains.
" We are working on it.
We list the damage to build the insurance files.
Everything has not been destroyed, specifies Antoine Delahaye.
We're all going to have to sit around a table to know what we want to do with it.
But we can imagine being able to welcome the public again around a pack.
"
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