Réunion: a total emergency for tenrecs

A small mammal with a pointed snout, the tenrec resembles a European hedgehog and rolls up into a ball when it is scared. This timid animal likes to hide under a pile of leaves, near large protective trees. On Réunion island, they are sadly hunted without compassion. In 2019 – following a study carried out with the Departmental Federation of Hunters [Fédération départementale des chasseurs] – an article published by the French Office for Biodiversity also confirmed that while 100,000 tenrecs are killed by hunters every year, 150,000 are massacred by poachers and sold on the black market. The result: the tenrec is in decline today. And if authorities were to endeavour to protect them, this would not be the case. The conclusions of the study, however, could not be clearer: baby tenrecs are born between November and January, but births can happen up until the end of March or beginning of April. Yet, the Réunion Prefect has just issued a criminal decree, in which he defines the hunting season for tenrecs as being from 16 February to 13 April 2022. This totally disregards the reproduction cycles of this animal already in the process of disappearing.

Dug out and captured alive

So even if the Prefect does not care about preserving biodiversity, he is also acting illegally. Driven out with the help of dogs, the tenrecs are dug out and captured alive, using the cruel method of underground hunting with hounds. According to the Environmental Code, this practice is forbidden from 15 January. Although no one is supposed to ignore the law, even less so a representative of the rule of law, the Prefect himself thinks he’s above it.

Urgent legal action

Facing such contempt from the authorities with regard to respecting wild animals, we have filed a submission for the annulment of the Réunion Prefect’s decree. The hearing will take place on 22 March at the Saint-Denis Administrative Tribunal. For tenrecs, this is urgent.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice