A retired vet from Brittany has found a way of identifying wolves from poor-quality photos and videos by adapting an old system used for horses.
Before microchips and lip tattoos came into use, horses had identification cards on which details such as colour, fur patterns, scars or other distinguishing features were marked.
The cards covered head-on, the horse’s back, and both sides.
“With the cards properly filled in, they constituted a unique identification of the animal, which was legally accepted,” Dr Alain Jean told The Connexion.
“I realised that by applying the same principle to photographs and videos of wolves it would be possible to reliably identify them too.”
Dr Jean’s work with the Groupe Loupe Bretagne association enabled him to prove that four different male wolves were in Brittany between May 2022 and August 2024.
The association had access to 105 photographs and 28 videos taken mainly by members of the public using smartphone cameras, and in poor light because the wolves were only seen at dawn or dusk.
“By careful analysis it is possible to use even poor quality images,” Dr Jean said.
Read more: Confirmed – animal spotted in Gironde, south-west France, is a wolf
Wolves in Brittany
“It was exciting to finally have proof of the number of wolves in Brittany, but they cover incredible distances so it is not certain they are still all here.”
All the photos showed male wolves – there are no signs they have found mates in the territory or that wolf packs have formed.
“Our members are out in the countryside and on the lookout for signs of a wolf pack, mainly by listening for their howls, but they have found nothing yet,” Dr Jean said.
Traces of fur found at the site where one of the wolves was seen were analysed.
The same DNA had been found in northern Germany, near Hamburg, and in Belgium, before the animal arrived in Brittany.
Some young male and female wolves leave the packs they were born into and cover large distances before either forming new packs or living solitary lives.
The ID cards Dr Jean developed use 10 points to identify wolves, including the colour of the facial mask, the presence of a mark at the jaw hinge, the colour of fur around the eyes, marks on the head, the colour of fur over the spine, a “saddle” mark just behind the shoulders, irregular marks on the whole body and the presence (or not) of a line down the tail.
He hopes that other wildlife groups in France and elsewhere will adopt it.
“My passion for wolves started in my early 20s, when I went with a friend to find some in the mountains of Galicia in Spain,” he said.
“We saw lots of signs, but no wolves that time, but I went back in winter and sat in a hide on the edge of a wood for hours, and managed to see one for a couple of minutes at dawn.
“It was an almost mystical experience in the half light, and I never forgot it.”
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Wolf attacks
His work as a vet means he knows many shepherds, who often complain about wolf attacks.
“I have shown that wolves actually help protect sheep because methods to prevent wolf attacks, using guard dogs, electric fences and the like, also stop attacks from dogs, which are much more numerous than wolf attacks.
“Wolves also help reduce illness in flocks, especially TB, because when they are in the area there are fewer deer and wild boar, who are carriers.”
Areas in the US where wolves have been reintroduced have also seen a significant reduction in road accidents where vehicles have collided with deer and wild pigs.
Wolves were declared extinct in France in the early 20th century.
One of the last to be shot in Dordogne, in the commune of Varaignes in 1908, was stuffed and is on display in the local museum.
They arrived back in France around 20 years ago from packs in the Italian Alps, and have since been seen all over the country.
Dr Jean said the fact that there are fewer people in the countryside due to modern farming, that there are more woods and other wild areas, and that wolves are protected under international law, have all contributed to their spread.
Read more: MAP: Wolves have returned to most French departments
