French shepherd 'mauled by wolves' A French shepherd has been mauled in what he says was an attack by wolves on a remote Alpine mountainside.
The attack took place on the edge of the Mercantour National Park, in southeast France, to which wolves have returned in recent years. Aime Segur, 56, says he was attacked by a she-wolf and its two young as he went to collect his flock from pastures 2000m above sea level, near the village of Isola. He added that he only managed to flee the attack when he called his own dogs which frightened the wolves away, France 2 television reported. Dogs to the rescue "It was between 4.30 and 5pm. Although attacks on sheep are common, the wolves have not been known to attack humans in the area before. But Jean-Marc Chavanier, a doctor and friend of Mr Segur, said: "I know him very well. "What surprises me as well is that a wolf should attack, but you have to accept things as they are.
" Wolf makes a comeback in France. 6 September 2011Last updated at 09:49 By Christian Fraser BBC News, Hautes Alpes The recolonising wolves are are believed to have crossed into France from Italy in the 1990s In the summer months high on the French Alps the sheep graze on rich pastures.
In the Hautes Alpes, they are currently feeding beneath ski lifts on slopes that will soon be covered by a thick layer of snow. But this year the freedom to roam has been curtailed. Somewhere in the dark, dense forests a grey wolf is on the prowl. The wolf was hunted almost to extinction in France in the 1930s but, protected as an endangered species, it is making a surprising comeback. Some 200 wolves have colonised the southern regions of France, divided into about 20 packs. Lionel Serres has 250 sheep on the mountainside this summer. Sheep spooked On the day we met, he was busy trying to recover an ewe that had been grabbed by a wolf around the neck. This ewe has been grabbed by the neck. France on alert for prowling wolves. 8 April 2014Last updated at 21:13 ET Sheep market in Barcelonnette: A wolf attack can be ruinous for a smallholding France is allowing wolf hunts in places where sheep are at risk from the carnivore's growing numbers, the BBC's John Laurenson reports.
But efforts to cull wolves are controversial. Late at night, up in an Alpine forest, a woman in a black skirt carrying a black gun gets out of her car. Caroline Bourda is a sheep farmer, in the hamlet of Esparron la Batie. She fires. The government advises farmers to shoot near their farms to educate the wolves to stay away. It has also advised - and paid for - sheep farmers to buy electric fences and huge protection dogs with spiked metal collars to stop the wolves sinking their fangs into their necks. The French government is spending 12m euros (£10m) a year on wolf attack prevention and compensation.
L'Etat repart à la chasse au loup. Après les attaques contre des troupeaux de brebis dans les alpages, onze loups pourront être tués en 2012-2013, contre six individus de cette espèce protégée lors de la période précédente, selon un arrêté publié jeudi au Journal Officiel.
«Le nombre maximum de spécimens de loups (mâles ou femelles, jeunes ou adultes) dont la destruction est autorisée, en application de l’ensemble des dérogations qui pourront être accordées par les préfets, est fixé à onze pour la période 2012-2013», précise l’arrêté signé par la directrice de la biodiversité au ministère de l’Ecologie, Odile Gauthier. L’article 2 du texte précise que, dès que huit loups auront été abattus (soit par tirs officiels, soit par braconnage), les tirs de prélèvement seront suspendus et seuls les tirs de défense seront autorisés. Trois départements, le Haut-Rhin, les Vosges et la Haute-Saône, ne figuraient pas sur la liste lors de la précédente période. MALME: Wolf Management in France. Le loup en France - Des chiffres et des étrangetés. (Sondage inlcu) / Wolves in France ; figures and strangeness. (Pol include.) - Wolfen Warrior Spirit.
" C'est la liberté de tyranniser, qui est le contraire de la liberté "
. - Fernando Pessoa. Le loup en France - Des chiffres et des étrangetés. (Vote/sondage + pétitions à la fin de la page) Il serait peut-être temps que l'ensemble des intéressés, regroupant l’État, les élu-e-s, les associations écologiques et autres, les différents lobbyismes de l'agriculture, nous expliquent, comment il se peut que, dans notre pays, nous ayons un nombre d'attaques sur les troupeaux ovins si important, pour l'une des population de loup les plus ridicule, comparativement avec nos voisins espagnol et italien ? The wolf in France - Figures and oddities. (Poll inlcu) / Wolves in France; figures and strangeness. (Pol include.) - Wolfen Warrior Spirit. Wolf - the reappearance of wolves in the wildlife of France. You are here: France informationFrance wildlifewolf Wolves were actively hunted and killed in France during a large part of the 19th century, and became extinct in the country by the 1930's.
Having once disappeared from France, wolves have now re-entered across the mountains from Italy, and are becoming established in the maritime Alps, in the Mercantour Parc. They are not always welcome, and sheep farmers especially complain about the cost they represent to their livelihood. Wolf cull approved after attacks on flocks, but environmental group protests. A CULL of wolves has been authorised for the coming 12 months after an increase in attacks on flocks of sheep and goats.
Outgoing Ecology Minister Odile Gauthier signed an order allowing the killing of up to 11 wolves - a rise from last year's quota of six. Wolves are a protected species and there are thought to be around 200 in France. They have spread into the Vosges in the past year. Environmental group France Nature Environnement has attacked the decision. Its wolf protection officer Jean-David Abel said that the increase in the population did not warrant a 180% rise in the numbers that could be legally killed. The government Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage wildlife body said that 12 wolves had been found dead in 2011, some killed by hunters or poachers and some by natural causes or accidents.
Mr Abel said the rise was politicians' way of venting the rage of the farming world. Please save the French Wolves.