Clément Fontaine

Wildlife and conservation photographer

Wildlife and conservation photographer

My project is to tell the story of the wolves’ return to France and everything that goes with it. From the impact on the livestock to the impact on the wildlife. I want to show that wolves are vital for the ecosystems and that herders that face wolves’ attacks need help to adapt their livestock's protection.
The last French wolves got killed in the 1930s. The wolf population then was all over France, even in plain area. In the early nineties, wolves return in France from Italy. In the Alps near Italian border first then spread to most alps’ mountains and other mountain range. Since the beginning, the herders need to face some wolves’ attacks because their livestock was left unprotected since no predator were present since at least sixty years. The French government, to answer to herders' anger, they start giving funds to protect efficiently herders' cattle in area where wolves were living. Sheepdog called "patou", electric fences and herders' helper were financed by the government.
You can find the full proposed project description in “proposal” section. Here is an update of my first scouting on this project.
I started this project at the end of 2022. This is the first pictures I was able to take for this proposed project, it’s not the final set of pictures that I want for this story, it is just the beginning.
So far, I have been able to get some pictures of how herds are protected with fence and protection sheepdogs and how close from the village they can be.
I was also scouting for this project with 3 trail cameras and one DSLR photo trap. I want to be able to get pictures of the wolf with a DSLR photo trap.
I’ve decided to put my trap in a pasture that is using by herders, and I wanted to show that they needed to share this pasture with wild animals.
Furthermore, I was able to get a wolf picture on one of the trail cameras placed 30 meters from the main pasture where my main camera trap was set. Also, where the picture of herders, sheepdogs, sheep, wild boar and hare were taken.

Most of the pictures have been taking in a radius of 3 km around my current location. Some of them a bit further on the Vercors mountain range.