A wolf photographed in Saône-et-Loire after three attacks on a herd

The presence of a wolf in Saône-et-Loire was suspected, and now here is the proof. The animal was photographed on the night of August 23 to 24 in the commune of Savigny-en-Revermont, by a camera trap installed by the French Office for Biodiversity, the prefecture reported on Friday August 30.

This canine is suspected of being the cause of “three attacks” these last days “in this municipality as well as in a neighboring municipality of Jura“, “for which the responsibility of the wolf has not been ruled out“, adds the prefecture. The prefect therefore invites breeders in the sector to “strengthen surveillance of their herds and report any attack without delay to the departmental OFB service”.

“Again and again the same scenes of horror, a ewe with a crushed trachea, open flanks, consumed udder… and a lamb with a severed trachea, dead in the morning.“, lamented on social networks Emilie Magnin, breeder at the Bergerie de la Saugerie in Villeneuve-en-Montagne.

The wolf is a protected species under European law and its destruction is therefore in principle prohibited. However, the law provides for exceptions to prevent “significant damage to livestock”as the administrative court of Besançon (Doubs) recalled in June, after having annulled two prefectural decrees authorizing shooting wolves to protect herds.