Big game abounding as French hunters resume arms
Copyright 2001 Agence France Presse
September 9, 2001
PARIS, Sept 9 - France's hunters resumed arms for the start of the season Sunday, as statistical reports showed a huge increase over recent years in the numbers of large game animals such as red deer and wild boar.
According to the National Hunt Office (ONC), the number of wild boar killed in 2000 was nearly 350,000 -- an eightfold increase in 25 years -- and would have been higher had not the devastating storms of the previous December put many forests out of bounds.
The explosion in the wild boar population has been put down to a too successful conservation programme in the 1980s and to cross-breeding with domestic pigs. In some areas -- such as around Nice on the Mediterranean coast -- they are causing serious damage to gardens and crops. The numbers of red deer felled in 2000 was 32,300 and of the smaller roe deer 395,000. Both figures were up four times in 15 years and reflect the proliferation of both species in France's woodlands.
In the Alps, 6,800 chamois were shot last year, compared to 3,700 in 1985. "The populations of big game animals have never been so abundant," said a statement from the National Federation of Hunters.
But meanwhile the statistics showed a steady decline in the numbers of small game being shot, with rabbits for example at 3.2 million in 2000 compared to 6.4 million in 1984 and partridge bags down by a third in the same period.
The fall is ascribed to loss of habitat caused by modern farming methods, and the use of insecticides.
The hunting season opened Sunday in the southern half of France and will be extended to northern departments in the next two weeks.
The country's 1.4 million hunters form a powerful political lobby, and bear a deep-seated grudge against the Socialist-led coalition of prime minister Lionel Jospin for its decision to reduce the wild bird-shooting season in line with European Union directives.
Under a law passed in June 2000, departmental governors had the right to grant special dispensations to duck-shooters, who traditionally hunted from mid-July to the end of February.
But these have been successfully challenged in the courts by environmentalists with the result that the season has been shortened by more than two months.
"The unhappiness of the hunters is palpable," said Henri Sabarot of the political party Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Tradition. He warned their votes could play a vital role in next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.