do some pests deserve their reputation?

The list of harmful species, or rather species “likely to cause damage”, as the “Esod” are officially called, is currently being revised. Every three years, it is set by ministerial order. The next one should come into force next July. And the so-called “harmful” animals appearing there can not only be hunted, but also trapped, captured or dug up outside hunting periods.

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To establish this list, the prefects made their proposals. They are being analyzed by the ministry, on the basis of damage caused by these animals in farms or gardens.

But the French Society for the Study and Protection of Mammals (SFEPM) calls for the preservation of four small carnivores that currently appear on this list: the weasel, the weasel, the marten and the fox, because this learned society claim on the basis of several years of scientific observations that these species also render beneficial ecological services.

An important but little-known role

These animals do us a favor by consuming rodents and crop-destroying insects. These species can help farmers. Moreover, these small carnivores play a health role by consuming the carcasses of dead animals, which can limit the spread of certain pathogens. In addition, the society for the protection of mammals denounces the lack of evaluation of policies for the elimination of these animals. This opinion is shared by others.

This is an analysis shared, for example, by Frederic Jiguet, professor at the Natural History Museum. Each year, if we also count birds such as crows or ravens, more than a million animals known to be harmful are eliminated. He finds it absurd that there is no assessment of the effectiveness of the policy of destroying these animals. Is it effective in controlling populations? Does this make economic sense? For this specialist in conservation biology, all these questions arise. There is also the question of ethics as we face biodiversity loss.