The noise of church bells, ducks, geese, cockerels and even frogs has been the source of many a complaint – and even legal action – from visitors and newly arrived city dwellers in the French countryside. Few will forget Maurice the crowing cockerel, who landed his owner in court in a case that ruffled feathers […]
Tag: France
Appetite for frogs’ legs in France and Belgium ‘driving species to extinction’
A voracious appetite for frogs’ legs among the French and Belgians is driving species in Indonesia, Turkey and Albania to the brink of extinction, according to a report. Europe imports as many as 200 million mostly wild frogs every year, contributing to a serious depletion of native species abroad. Scientists estimate that the Anatolian water […]
French court outlaws glue-trap hunting of songbirds
France’s highest appeals court has ruled that the hunting of songbirds with glue traps is illegal, saying an exemption that had permitted the practice was in breach of European legislation. For generations, hunters mainly in the south of France have caught songbirds by coating branches of trees with glue, often using the singing of other […]
Record number of bear cubs born in French Pyrenees brings cheer and fear
French animal rights groups are celebrating news that populations of brown bears – which had been threatened with extinction – have seen a strong revival in the Pyrenees mountains. Livestock owners, however, warn bears attacks on their flocks are out of control. Bear numbers rose to from 52 to 64 last year, including 16 cubs […]
Finger pointed at poachers after rare lynx killed in France
A lynx, one of Europe’s rarest mammals, has been found shot dead in eastern France in a suspected killing by poachers, local officials said Tuesday. The only big cat species to live in the wild in France, the lynx carcass was found on December 31 in the Jura mountains and an autopsy showed it was […]
Glue bird traps: Macron suspends use amid EU row
French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered hunters in southern France to stop the controversial practice of trapping birds on glue-covered twigs. The suspension follows a warning to France from the European Commission that it could face legal action at EU level if the practice continued. France is unusual in Europe for still tolerating the glue […]
Wild boar ‘carnage’ in eastern France was ‘intolerable’ – hunting president
The killing of 158 wild boar in a single day’s hunting in eastern France has sparked anger in the region and accusations of “carnage”, even if the hunters were within their allowed quotas. The boar were killed in a “battue” in which beaters drove the game towards the 82 hunters last Wednesday in the eastern […]
Slaughter of the songbirds: the fight against France’s ‘barbaric’ glue traps
It is early morning in the heart of Provence, and somewhere behind the tall black pine trees a rousing dawn chorus begins. We are crouching out of sight among the rosemary bushes and wild asparagus listening to the melodic musical phrases of song thrushes and blackbirds. This is Marcel Pagnol country, rich in flora and […]