It is officially his first victim. A sheep was killed in Saint-Germain-les-Belles on the night of December 2 to 3 by a wolf, another was injured. The French Biodiversity Office confirms it this Friday morning: “the predation is attributable to the wolf and it could be the same wolf that operated in Vayres.”
A predation in Vayres where “the responsibility of the wolf is not ruled out”
The wolf arrived in Haute-Vienne after more than a century of non-presence on December 1st. The first photographic reports were noted on December 1 and 2 in Champagnac-la-Rivière and Ladignac-le-Long. If we believe the chronology given by the Haute-Vienne prefecture and the OFB, this predation attributable to the wolf in Saint-Germain-les-Belles would have been the first. It could be followed by another predation which occurred on December 3 in a sheep farm in Vayres, near Rochechouart. One ewe lamb had been killed and another injured.
The prefect of Haute-Vienne, Fabienne Balussou indicates in a press release that the two predations in Vayres and Saint-Germain les Belles “will be the subject ofcompensation in accordance with the 2018-2023 national action plan on wolves and breeding activities.“She also explains that the actions to be carried out in the short and medium term to preserve the farms will be identified” alongside the professional agricultural managers and all the partners “.
Did the wolf go to Corrèze afterwards?
The continuation of the observation is essential also underlines the OFB. It is indeed this which made it possible to indicate that a wolf was seen in Saint-Ybard in Corrèze last December 4, that is to say a few days after the observations of predations made in Haute-Vienne. Is it the same wolf? “Difficult to say because there is nothing to prove it” replied the OFB in Corrèze on Thursday evening, However, the onset of winter is the season of dispersal, when young wolves leave their packs in search of territory. The wolf moves quickly and discreetly, hence the difficulty of knowing if since last weekend, he left Limousin territory or not.