A rain-soaked night in the French mountains ended with a discovery no livestock farmer wants to make. When Christelle Guignard went to check her flock on Friday morning, she found dozens of animals dead or injured across the high pastures of the Vercors.
Around 450 sheep had been grazing at the Fauge alpine pasture near Villard-de-Lans, in France’s Isere area, when wolves reached the flock during the night of October 8.
54 sheep die after wolf attack in the Vercors
Isere prefecture officials confirmed that 54 ewes died and another eight were injured, and according to Sebastien Mollet, departmental head of the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), around 15 were killed directly by wolves.
Panic was the heart-wrenching reason that caused many of the remaining deaths, frightened sheep fled towards a hollow in the terrain, where animals piled on top of one another and suffocated. Most of Guignard’s ewes were pregnant, according to local reports, increasing the financial impact on the farm. Several survivors suffered serious wounds, including bites around the throat.
Guard dogs and electric fencing fail were no match for the wolves
Multiple protection measures were already in place, including livestock guard dogs, electric fencing, a radio and flashing lights, but they were no match for the pack. Mollet explained that autumn can produce larger attacks because adult wolves are teaching younger pack members to hunt, although incidents on this scale remain rare.
Guignard’s brother Jean-Luc later stayed close to the surviving flock overnight over fears the predators could return. He said the traumatised sheep struggled to settle following the ordeal.
Helicopter removes carcasses from alpine pasture
The removal was no simple task, mountainous terrain added complications to the clean-up operation where farmers and OFB officers gathered the carcasses before they were removed by helicopter. A nearby watercourse added to the urgency of removal due to drinking-water catchments located farther downhill.
Second major Vercors attack in six weeks
The tragedy comes just weeks after a similar incident in neighbouring Drome. On the night of August 30, a wolf attack at Bouvante, around 20 kilometres south-west of Villard-de-Lans, left 64 sheep dead, bringing total losses across the two Vercors attacks to 118 animals.
France’s wolf population is officially estimated at just over 1,000, though agricultural groups claim the figure is higher. Predators are now present in more than 60 departments (administrative counties in France), compared to fewer than 10 a decade ago, with wolf attacks blamed for over 10,000 livestock deaths annually.
Farming groups are demanding tougher intervention, while conservationists insist strict protection is still essential. For Guignard, however, the political debate is now a very personal one, following a morning spent facing dozens of dead sheep despite taking every recommended measure to protect them.