• Since Friday, a shepherd and his 96 ewes have been installed at the green base of Argoulets in Toulouse as part of an eco-grazing mission.

  • This natural method of mowing is one of the alternatives found by the town hall to reduce its carbon footprint.

  • To overcome pests, the town hall uses ferrets to hunt rats or even falcons to fight against colonies of starlings.

Since Friday, Noureddine Guerbati has set up his enclosures at Argoulets, in Toulouse.

This “urban” shepherd is at the head of a herd of 98 ewes which they let graze in a green space of seven hectares, between ring road and sports fields.

“Ecograzing is a way to bring the countryside closer to the city, it's therapy.

At the same time, it is a way to reduce the use of machines and to clear brush in an ecological way”, explains the man from Ardèche who takes the time to discuss with walkers.

He who exercises one of the oldest professions in the world is hired by a company specializing in these mowers on legs, without the noise of the engine, which has signed a contract with the town hall and will be present until July 1.

Since 2017, the Pink City has been using this ancestral method to weed this large natural space in the city for 20,000 euros.

“It's a different way of seeing green spaces, more ecological.

Sheep fertilize the soil and have a much better carbon footprint than tools,” explains Clément Riquet, municipal councilor responsible for gardens, green spaces and biodiversity.

While pesticides are now banned in the city, the use of animals is more and more frequent.

This is the case in municipal greenhouses where lacewings or even parasitoid wasps are used to control aphids as part of integrated biological control.

European falcon and bee-eater to the rescue

But this is not limited to the preservation of flora.

For several months, the city services have called on a Gers ferret breeder to exterminate the places where rodents abound.

“We establish geographical areas where he intervenes.

It is a natural way to regulate, without using rat poison.

This is what we are trying to develop as a policy.

As soon as we have the opportunity to find such a solution, we do so.

For example, a falconer is ready to intervene to hunt starlings the day we have colonies, in order to avoid having to use scaring shots, ”explains Françoise Ampoulange, elected in charge of the animal in the city.

As summer approaches, she is working on new methods to overcome two recurring nuisances: mosquitoes and Asian hornets.

In addition to the ecological terminals which trap the first, the city has undertaken work to list the predatory birds of these two scourges.

In particular swallows which can absorb up to 7,000 insects per day, in particular tiger mosquitoes.

“We also have a pair of European bee-eaters who gave birth to three babies last year near Empalot.

It's the only one that eats the Asian hornet.

For swallows, we are looking with the League for the Protection of Birds to see if there are enough of them or if they need to be recolonized,” continues Françoise Ampoulage.

And when there are no possible predators for the pests, there are other possibilities.

Thus reducing the population of pigeons, a third contraceptive dovecote has just been built at La Faourette and another is in the pipes in the center of the Pink City.

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  • Planet

  • Toulouse

  • Animals

  • ecology

  • Environment

  • Biodiversity

  • Mosquito-tiger

  • Sheep

  • Occitania