Limited Cull of Wolves Ordered to Save Sheep

For the first time since they were hunted to the verge of extinction in the early years of the last century, grey wolves may once again be legally slaughtered in France - but only four of them.

The government yesterday authorised a limited cull barely a decade after the controversial species made its reappearance in the Hautes Alpes region of south-eastern France.

"This is not about reducing the wolf population in France, but reducing the specific pressure on certain areas," said the environment minister, Serge Lepeltier, who has in the past opposed any form of slaughter of Canis lupus, protected in Europe by the 1979 Berne convention.

He said local authorities in the region could authorise a wolf hunt only after repeated attacks in their area, and warned that if the first three wolves killed were females, he would not allow a fourth hunt.

The move went some way to calm the mounting fury of Alpine sheep farmers, who lost 2,177 animals in about 500 separate wolf attacks last year. In the latest incident, 140 sheep and lambs died last weekend after hurling themselves into a ravine to escape a predator.

"The minister has revised his position, and I'm delighted," said the head of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur sheep farmers' association, Franck Dieny. "That said, however, the maximum of four wolves is nowhere near enough to relieve the pressure on the sheep-farming community."

Mr Lepeltier's decision was also calculated to reassure the ecology lobby, which sees the wolves' return to France as a triumphant re-establishment of the natural order and has campaigned against some farmers' demands to be able to shoot them on sight.

"I am satisfied that the most extreme voices did not carry the day," said Christophe Aubel of the France Nature Environment Federation. "But we must remember that the wolf's existence in France is still very fragile."

The grey wolf reappeared in France for the first time since the 1920s in 1992. Its permanent population now numbers at least 39 and possibly as many as 55.

A government working party said last year that a cull of 10% of the population would not affect its survival. Mr Lepeltier said yesterday the situation would be kept under review, but said the bottom line was that the wolf would be preserved in France, which "inevitably means the creatures will eventually move well beyond the Alpine region".