Should we be afraid of the wolf?

• Wolves have successively been seen, in the creeks at the gates of Marseille, near a college in the Var, and in the courtyard of a house in Haute-Provence.

• A boldness that raises the question of its potential threat to humans.

• A Norwegian study recorded between 2002 and 2020 wolf attacks on human beings around the world.

The wolf takes its ease in Provence and Haute-Provence. Over the past two weeks, the animal has been successively seen on the outskirts of Hyères (Var), where a wolf attacked a flock of sheep grazing in a meadow was attacked 100 meters from a college, then seen by a resident of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence who suspects the animal of coming into her yard to eat her cats' kibble.

Two stories reported by

and

which question and could worry.

How far can the wolf go?

Until the gates of Marseille, already, where a couple was identified in early December, in the Calanques.

However, should we be afraid to see

approaching urban areas?

“It's the opposite which would be surprising, advances Roger Mathieu, wolf referent for France nature environment.

What would be incredible is that wolves do not cross the cities.

The wolf is a very adaptable, clever and opportunistic animal.

His behavior is to ignore human beings.

»

Nearly 500 attacks worldwide on humans in eighteen years

In a study published in January 2021, the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research attempted to identify the number of attacks by wolves on humans worldwide between 2002 and 2020. Over this eighteen-year period, based on on media publications and regional expert observers, researchers rate their coverage as "high" in Europe and North America, and "good at best" in Eurasia. Still, they identified 489 human victims, including 26 fatal. For 14 of them, it was about attacks of rabid wolves, specifies the study. Over the entire period, researchers only collected 12 evidence of wolf attacks in Europe and North America, where the only two fatalities occurred. “Considering that there are nearly 60,000 wolves in North America and 15,000 in Europe,all sharing space with hundreds of millions of people, it is evident that the risks associated with a wolf attack are greater than zero but too low to calculate,” the publication concludes.

An economic threat above all

That said, how do you explain that wolves approach humans and their habitats?

“The wolf lives in a human landscape, because there are humans everywhere, states Roger Mathieu simply.

And, like the fox, he is not particularly afraid of humans.

In Italy, or in Spain, where the wolf has never disappeared, it is not uncommon to see them crossing villages.

Most of the time, it is a "dispersing" wolf, which has left its pack, which has become too numerous, and is looking for a new territory.

In his wandering, “he is likely to travel 1,000 or 2,000 km and cross cities, details the referent wolf.

This has been proven by the various studies with GPS beacons conducted in Spain or Germany.

»

But why such a bad reputation and such fear?

The wolf can above all pass as an economic threat when it attacks the herds.

Also, he has long been demonized, especially at a time when rabies was widespread.

“The distribution of rabid wolf attacks closely follows the distribution of rabies cases in humans and other wildlife,” the researchers find in their study.

“But you will never prevent people from believing in

 ,” concludes Roger Mathieu.

podcast

" Wait a minute !

» : What place for the wolf in France ?

Justice

Investigation opened after farmer's call to 'kill and make wolves disappear'

• 20 minute video

• Wolf

• Planet

• 0 comment

• 0 share

  • Share on Messenger

  • Share on Facebook

  • Share on Twitter

  • Share on Flipboard

  • Share on Pinterest

  • Share on Linkedin

  • Send by Mail

• To safeguard

• A fault ?

• To print