first sightings of a wolf in over a century

A gray wolf has been observed twice this week in Haute-Vienne, for the first time in more than a century, the prefecture announced on Friday (December 3) in a press release. A large canine was observed Wednesday, December 1 in Champagnac-la-Rivière, in the southwest of the department, and a second report, “probably from the same animal”, was done the next day in Ladignac-le-Long, about twenty kilometers from Champagnac, explained the prefecture.

“The French Biodiversity Office (OFB) quickly validated the first report as being very probably a gray wolf”, added the prefecture, specifying that if the meeting of a wolf in Haute-Vienne was “a first for over a century”, however, she was not “not surprisingly”.

The species, protected in France and in Europe, “is known for its great dispersal capacity”, especially in autumn and early winter when “the young born in spring take their place fully within the group, forcing other individuals to leave the pack to seek new territory”. The latter can then “travel several hundred kilometers before settling down”, according to a system of colonization by “bonds”.

The wolf was thus observed at the end of November in Calvados and a corpse found at the end of October in Loire-Atlantique, for the first time in a century. Earlier this year it was seen in Vendée and Vienne, again for the first time in a hundred years. According to the OFB, the gray wolf population is growing in France with an estimated total of 624 adult individuals at the end of winter 2021 against 580 a year earlier.