According to Nice Matin today a flock of sheep has been attacked by a pack of wolves on its way back down to winter pastures.
The interesting part is the comments section. On the one hand there are those who blame the écolos for insisting that wolves be protected and on the other those who blame the shepherd for leaving his flock overnight and having to be told about the attack by third parties. Then there are those who think it was not a pack of wolves but wild dogs. The shepherd can claim compensation only if the guilty parties were wolves, so will of course swear they were even if the attackers were a bunch of pink poodles. Then there are comments about how the state of the corpses will prove whether it was wolves or not, along with the interesting detail that you can tell the difference between wolves and wild dogs by the way they drink. All you need to do is follow the pack to water. I’m not sure they’ll hang around waiting for someone to follow them.
There are wolves in the area, mainly in the Mercantour, not on the Caussols plateau as far as I know. They wandered over from Italy, where apparently sheep are kept for their milk and are much better protected, rather than for their meat. This looks set to be another of these disputes that runs and runs but it is noticeable that all attacks are on flocks without a shepherd. Hire more shepherds – could help lower the unemployment total.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Yes, I blame the Italians.
It’s probably the Schengen agreement, Janus, allowing all sorts to cross frontiers without checks.
I suppose in the scheme of things, getting one’s knickers in a twist over slaughtered sheep is better than having to worry about some of the issues that occur in other countries.
Having done a quick google, I’m amazed to find that wolves, in relatively small numbers are living in quite a few European countries. Most of these countries compensate farmers for their losses, so I can understand why these French sheep farmers are anxious to prove it was wolves, not dogs.
I like wolves actually, but I wouldn’t want to meet a pack if I were quietly walking in the countryside. I don’t know if they would attack humans unless they were starving, but I’m not keen to find out.
Wait, the answer’s staring us all in the face… why don’t they just round up the wolves from where they are, and ship them over to where the wild boars are…
Yes, bravo, some sort of dating arrangement would be good. Unfortunately the locals who object to boar tearing up their crops might also object to the wolves looking for something to eat once the boar have disappeared. Perhaps we in the UK should consider ourselves lucky.
Araminta, I think you can meet wolves, in a civilised way, in Scotland.
Hello, Sheona.
I met a couple a few years ago at the Henley Show. They were quite timid and looked a bit stressed by all the attention. I felt a bit sorry for them, actually, but it was interesting to see them close up.
I suspect they were quite well fed and used to being in captivity.
Arrers, “I like wolves actually….” More of a West Brom man meself.
Trouble is the economics of it doesn’t work too well generally. A good commercial breeding ewe would probably get currently £150.00, which is higher value than average years. A shepherd’s wages has to be amortised over a flock, one person cannot handle that many sheep, say 200 or so (just) with three good dogs. (And they cost a fortune, min £2000 each trained.) I would have thought the answer was to truck them between the summer and winter grazing. most do.
There is one solution that would put the wolves off, run a couple of llamas with the sheep, very keen on protecting flocks are llamas, known to kick wolves to death or wild dogs come to that. That is how they are used in the Andes. They have very little use else, coat too coarse except for felt and don’t eat too well when past youth, but very good guard animals. Lot of people have them round here to keep the coyotes at bay, most effective.
Llamas sound ideal, Christina. I’ll try to put a comment up on Nice Matin suggesting it.
Mornin’ Sheona. Well don’t look at me. I was in The Cave all that night.
Christina – Quite right about those llamas; vicious buggers all of them.
Araminta – This site is well worth a look. The guy does good scientific work. Shaun Ellis
OZ
There was an excellent documentary on TV a couple of weeks ago following a Canadian wolf pack over a year. Very intelligent animals who could run rings round their prey. Vegetarian diet doesn’t do much for brain power, it seems!
Alpha male OZ, I believe you.
How did you learn about running rings round the prey, Sheona? You only do that subject way into your highly secretive Masters Degree in Advanced Lupine Hunting, right after the shepherd hypnosis course and just before ‘How to subdue a llama’.
OZ
Thank you for the link, OZ.
I agree Sheona. Fascinating animals, and highly intelligent.
Alpacas guard well too and also give top class wool, but are expensive to buy and probably not worth risking as a guard animal. Maremma sheepdogs, or similar breeds (which live and bond with the flock) are ideal for protecting sheep against predators.
“predators”
Yes, that’s you, OZ! Naughty Wolf.
A wolf’s gotta eat too, Bilby. Apart from their cities it’s still a wild world out there in which homo sapiens is the intruder (and for the most part the prey were it not for their brains).
OZ
Surely you know that I adore wolves, OZ? Sheep need to be protected from such predators; human/lupine conflict equals dead wolves.
As a French / Italian taxpayer (which obviously I’m not!) I’d seriously object to compensating the owners of sheep (or other live-stock) from wolves or other predators if the said owners did not make adequate provisions for the safety of their property…
As you say, Sheona, “Hire more Shepherds”…
Yes, Bilby, but humans have guns. Give me an unarmed human deep in the forest and I reckon I’d give a good account of myself if challenged, which I doubt I would be. As I said above, homo sapiens is an intruder in a wild world. 🙂
OZ
I’m afraid there’s been another attack on a flock of sheep. But having read the comments about the modus operandi of wolves, I’m not sure that they’re to blame.
http://www.nicematin.com/faits-divers/nouvelle-attaque-de-loups-45-moutons-manquants-a-annot.1045432.html
Apparently wolves kill for food and would not leave intact carcasses. The blame seems to be being attributed to dogs, particularly the dogs of local hunters which are known to wander off on their own for days at a time rather than returning to their owners at the end of the hunt.