Farmers use volunteers to protect sheep from wolf attacks in France

Volunteers from Pastoraloup watch over a flock of sheep in the hills above Villebois-les-Pins in central France. Photo / Jean-Philippe Ksiazek, AFP

Carrying staffs like shepherds, Sophie Morice-Couteau and Geoffroy Galliot inspect the nets of a sheepfold on a steep slope in the Baronnies massif, part of their daily mission to keep wolves away.

The two Bretons are volunteers who signed up to protect the flock belonging to farmer Nathalie Welker in the Drome Provencal, in France’s southeast, from wolf attacks, which have become so common that she feels under “pressure” from the predators.

“The wolves are here, there’s nothing to be done about that, so we need to find a response,” said Welker, 57, wearing a T-shirt that reads: “I’m a farmer and proud of it”, as she looked across her sun-drenched valley.

Wolves have made a comeback in Europe, multiplying attacks on livestock and causing angry reactions from farmers, some of whom say the predators should be shot on sight.

The European Union recently downgraded wolves from “strictly protected” to “protected”, making such killings easier.

The French Government has authorised 192 wolves to be shot this year, out of the country’s total wolf population of 1013.

But some say the killings do little to stop wolf attacks.

The best prevention is “a human presence”, said Welker, adding that she had lived alongside wolves for 20 years.

But she cannot afford to pay a full-time shepherd to look after her two flocks, and instead turned to an organisation of volunteers, Pastoraloup, three years ago, for help.

‘I support wolves, but I also support farmers’

Pastoraloup is run by the Ferus association, dedicated to the defence of large predators.

It trains volunteers and sends them out to farmers who need assistance.

Welker said she can now “sleep at night and be much less stressed”.

Meeting people and educating them about farming are a bonus of working with the volunteers.

Around 35 farmers in the French Alps, the Jura and Brittany are taking part in the scheme this year, up from about 20 two years ago.

Morice-Couteau, 45, and Galliot, 48, are among 63 new volunteers who trained last year.

“I support wolves, but I also support farmers,” said Morice-Couteau, adding that the presence of the predator could become “one problem too many” for farmers.

Welker fears “major attacks” are coming, notably in the autumn, when young wolves learn how to hunt.

‘Here to help’

In October 2023, 17 of Welker’s animals were killed after a volunteer left suddenly, leaving the flock without protection.

At sundown, her two new volunteers herd around 50 sheep – all meticulously accounted for – into their night shelter, protected by a 1.4m-high electric fence.

Morice-Couteau makes a last round in the dark, equipped with a headlamp, before going to bed in a tipi a few metres away, aware that wolves can strike at any time “if they see an opportunity”.

Morice-Couteau, who works in the cinema industry, said she believed farmers and wolves could co-exist, but her volunteering experience had also made her “understand the violent feelings that some farmers harbour towards wolves”.

Tensions have for years been building between farmers and environmentalists over the issue of wolf conservation in France as numbers of the predators have grown.

Welker said there is “very strong social pressure” on farmers who use Pastoraloup, which discourages others from benefiting from the programme because it is “labelled environmentalist”.

“We’re not here for a debate,” said Morice-Couteau.

“We’re here to help.”

– Agence France-Presse