Survey on French opinion on wolves
On December 3, 2024, the day the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention votes on the European Commission’s proposal to lower protection for wolves throughout the Union (the species would thus lose its “strictly protected” status), One Voice is organizing an international unitary event with a number of its partners abroad and at home. This gathering is part of a coordinated national campaign to raise public awareness of these animals in a dozen towns and cities across metropolitan France. Indeed, there are many common preconceptions about wolves, and calls to poach them are now even commonplace among certain farming unions…
French people are not so worried about wolves, which they see as essential to French biodiversity…
A minority of French people are anxious about wolves. Only 32% fear their presence in France, and 8% say they are very worried. This figure is stable overall, depending on the respondent’s gender and area of residence.
Logically, the French respondents also significantly affirm that the presence of wolves in France does not represent a risk to themselves and their families (82%). Men are slightly more fearful of wolves (21% vs. 15% for women). This lack of fear can be explained by the fact that most French people are aware that wolves tend to avoid humans (80%).
Wolves are useful animals in the eyes of the French. They agree that these wild animals play an important role in the balance of the ecosystem (82%), and that they have a rightful place in France’s natural environment (86%). Convinced of the usefulness of wolves, the majority of French people (81%) consider that the return of wolves to France represents a real benefit for biodiversity.
Respondents are fiercely opposed to measures that would jeopardize the conservation of wolves in France…
The findings are clear: 83% of French people are against the total eradication of wolves in France. Only 6% are completely in favor. 83% are in favor of banning the shooting of species in a poor state of conservation, and 69% want to ban exemptions allowing lethal shooting of wolves.
On a national scale, 73% of those questioned consider it unacceptable for the French State to shoot animals from protected species such as wolves, simply because they may represent a risk to livestock farming.
On a European scale, 68% of French people do not want the status of wolves to be changed from “strictly protected” to “protected” by the European Union, as this would lead to a relaxation of regulations for culling them.
The majority of French people claim that wolves are not aggressive and that they prey on unprotected flocks
The majority of French people agree that wolves are not aggressive animals (56%). In the absence of effective protection of livestock herds by their breeders, 84% of French people deplore wolf attacks on unprotected flocks.
In order to protect the flocks as much as possible from wolf attacks, the French would like to see breeders take greater responsibility. They are largely in favor of farmers being more obliged to implement protection measures for their flocks (87%). In the same vein, 85% of French people want farmers to be compensated by public funds if, and only if, they implement measures to protect their herds (human presence, enclosures, dogs, etc.).
The survey was carried out by the Ipsos Institute from October 30 to November 4, 2024 among 1,000 people, constituting a representative national sample of the French population aged 18 to 75. The sample was surveyed online via the Ipsos Access Panel Online (Quota method: gender, age, profession of respondent, area of residence category, region).