VIDEO. Herd attacks: when wolf defenders help shepherds watch over sheep

It's 8 p.m. and the day is ending on the Albion plateau. But for Patrick Nectoux, the work is only just beginning. With a determined step, he heads towards the two enclosures where 350 sheep and five patous await him. His first task is to feed these imposing dogs responsible for protecting the sheep against the wolf . "It allows us to reconnect, because I haven't seen them all day," explains the sixty-year-old, filling the bowls with kibble.

A "moment of exchange" all the more important since Patrick Nectoux has only known these dogs for five days. He is neither a shepherd nor a breeder. He is not an enemy of the wolf, quite the contrary. This retired laboratory assistant volunteers for the Ferus association, which defends large predators in France. He participates in the Pastoraloup program, set up by the association in 1999 to help breeders monitor their herds.

This week in Revest-du-Bion (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) is his first surveillance mission. Patrick Nectoux signed up because he didn't want to "stand idly by" in the face of the political and agricultural offensive to weaken the level of protection of the wolf . Shortly after our report, Emmanuel Macron even called for killing more of them . "It is possible to live with the wolf, but it will require an effort, and instead of making this effort, we prefer to take up arms," ​​regrets Patrick Nectoux.

After a first tour of the two enclosures to check that everything is okay, the volunteer settles into his tent, pitched a few meters from the fences. He sets his alarm for the next round, in two hours if the patous don't wake him up before then. "You have to react very quickly when the dogs sound the alarm, otherwise it could already be too late," he explains.

One o'clock in the morning. Patrick Nectoux leaves his tent. In the moonless night, he begins his rounds. At regular intervals, he illuminates the forest and yells to the crowd phrases like "beware of the wolves" or "it's the paw-patou!" "It's very important, the light, the fact of showing that we're there. The voice, and then he'll smell us too," he justifies.

The wolf didn't come that evening, but it wasn't far away. On June 23, two days before our visit, it killed three sheep in the commune. Patrick Nectoux is also convinced that the canine approached the flock a few days earlier. "The dogs were there, barking loudly, really fixated on this part of the forest," he says, pointing to the trees bordering the enclosure.

At one point, the dogs stopped, the sheep were very calm... Total silence, and then footsteps in the dead leaves... I assumed it was him.

Patrick Nectoux, volunteer for the Ferus association

At daybreak, the volunteer hands over to the farmer. That morning, Pascal Petit has a lot of work to do: he has to examine the ewes one by one before they leave for the summer pastures, scheduled for the end of the week. Some have foot injuries, others have hooves—the "sheep's hoof"—that are too long. The animal has to be turned around and the horn trimmed with pruning shears. It's a physical job: "You can't work the animals during the day and watch over your flock at night," says the farmer.

Thanks to the program, wolf advocates and sheep farmers also learn to know each other better and overcome their prejudices. "My fear was to meet fanatical ecologists, like those at Notre-Dame-des-Landes and the like. And no, they are normal people, with normal and very balanced minds," says Pascal Petit. Patrick Nectoux acknowledges that there are sometimes "oppositions" but that there is above all "understanding."

First developed in the Alps, the Pastoraloup program now exists in the Jura, Brittany, and Lot. Around 700 volunteers have been trained to carry out these surveillance missions. "It's not just up to farmers to bear the burden of bringing back the wolf ," says Fannie Malet, head of Pastoraloup. "This program is an outstretched hand."

She acknowledges that these surveillances are not "a miracle solution" but claims good results: almost 16,000 nights and days of surveillance, with attacks or attempted attacks in less than 1% of cases. Pascal Petit, for his part, is more convinced by this solution than by the gun. "It is better for the wolf to be protected and for us to be helped, rather than for it to become a pest and for us not to be helped ," analyzes the breeder, before slipping: the wolf is like everything else, it has the right to exist."