Animal photographed swimming in river in Brittany verified to be a wolf
The animal, identified as a lone male, was spotted by a couple on a morning walk
The grey wolf was photographed swimming in the Laïta estuary on January 1
Screenshot from loup.bzh / Groupe Loup Bretagne / Philippe Gazeau
An animal photographed swimming in a river in Brittany on January 1 has been verified by the authorities as a male grey wolf.
Amateur photographer Philippe Gazeau and his partner were on a morning stroll along the border of Finistère and Morbihan, beside the Laïta, a tidal estuary known for its rich and rugged vegetation and home to a wide variety of wildlife.
The animal emerged from the river and disappeared into the undergrowth but not before pausing to turn and look at the couple, giving Mr Gazeau time to take several photographs.
“It was an extraordinary encounter,” he told the wolf-watching website Groupe Loup Bretagne, which has placed a photograph of the event on its website.
When the wolf had gone Mr Gazeau took photos of the prints it had left on the shore of the Laïta.
Since his encounter on January 1, the photographer has been heavily solicited by the press but has declined to comment further.
However, his photographs have been studied by experts, who confirmed the identification as a wolf.
“The animal presents all the morphological criteria of the grey wolf species and the observation is therefore validated," said the Morbihan prefecture in a statement.
"It appears that the animal in question has a set of characteristics similar to another observed on several occasions in Finistère. It would therefore appear to be a known individual."
Read more: Horse ID cards adapted to track wolves in western France
The “rare and well-documented sighting" of a wolf swimming in an estuary shows just how easily the species can move around France, “with no hesitation in crossing a river several dozen metres wide,” notes Groupe Loup Bretagne.
The spread of wolves in France
Wolves reappeared in France in the early 1990s, crossing the Alps from Italy. Their ‘strictly protected' status under European wildlife protection laws facilitated their spread.
Their numbers grew steadily, rising from 82 in 2002 and reaching around 1,000 individuals spread across almost all French departments in 2023.
Read more: MAP: Wolves have returned to most French departments
However, new hunting regulations introduced in 2024 gave hunters greater leeway to shoot them.
Only three or four are thought to live in Brittany, making false positive sightings common, with large dogs such as huskies frequently mistaken for them.
In May 2023, a lone wolf sighted in Finistère was thought to be responsible for 11 attacks on livestock, however the identification as a wolf was not verified.
