The origins and long history of France’s unique wildlife officers

If you wander around forested lands and spot someone with a camouflage or somber green jacket, a rifle and a badge on the upper left sleeve, your highest chances are to assume it is either a hunter or an agent from the Office français de la biodiversité (OFB).

“We are easily confused with them, particularly OFB agents, because of their badge,” said Julien Nicolas, an wildlife engineer consultant for the Compagnie nationale du Rhône. OFB agents have a rectangular badge with their three letters, easily confusable from afar with lieutenants de louveterie, Mr Nicolas’ other job in his life.

The lieutenants de louveterie’s badge aligns with the French word louveterie, a derivative of louveteau (wolf cub) and loup (wolf). It features the head of a menacing wolf. 

Mr Nicolas has been the president of the association des lieutenants de louveterie de France since November 2024 and a lieutenant de louveterie himself for 20 years, one of 1,700 spread across every department inland and overseas.Wolves are the reason for this little-known corps’ existence, founded by Charlemagne in 813 to fight an animal that caused fear, havoc and terror.

The Connexion was made aware of the existence of lieutenants de louveterie after France 3 interviewed Eric Moscavit, a louvetier, following Chancelade mairie’s initiative to catch boar using cages.

They are a State corps of volunteers sent as a last resort to deal with problems involving wild animals, from wolves to boars, jackdaws and sometimes, in the unlikeliest of cases, bison.

In Ardèche only, 24,000 boars were killed by hunters, according to figures provided by Mr Nicolas. Lieutenants de louveterie killed about 500 either because animals had become too dangerous or roamed in areas restricted to hunters, such as highways or suburban areas.

Julien Nicolas took the time to answer questions about the history of louvetiers, their role, what type of animals they are most called in for, whether some of our readers can become one themselves and what to do if a boar causes damage in their garden.

What is a lieutenant de louveterie?

I am a private, occasional collaborator of the state. Unlike civil servants, we are volunteers attached to public service. A lieutenant receives orders from prefects or mayors, formalised in official decrees. Lieutenants are called in to intervene on species likely to cause damage. ‘Likely’ because the damage must be proven.

When was your role invented and why?

Lieutenants de louveterie were founded by Charlemagne in 813 to organise an empire which spread as far as modern-day Germany, Italy and Spain. He reigned over a territory that was mostly covered by forests which were, at the time, a dangerous area where people carrying diseases, thieves and lepers shared land with boars and wolves. 

He founded the Corps de la Louveterie, an institution responsible for the eradication of wolves which wandered and roamed freely across the territory, terrorising shepherds, killing their herds and sometimes babies and children. 

Wolves were depicted as cruel, deceitful and wicked. The Catholic church compared them to the devil, hence so many of our contes (tales) portraying the wolf as bad and dangerous.How did they become ‘lieutenants’?

How did they become ‘lieutenants’?

Under the Ancien Régime (1589-1789), a louvetier was three things: a person tasked with controlling wolves and other harmful animals; the master of a royal wolf-hunting pack and the resident of an official lodging.

During the Second Empire (1852-1870), there were sergeants, lieutenants, captains and even a Grand Louvetier, depending on the administrative level. The title of lieutenant remained after the fall of the Second Empire. It is a title, not a rank by the way. 

The role has always been based on volunteering. Centuries ago, the role gave advantages such as being exempted from taxes and from the draft.

Which ministry do you take your orders from? Are you gendarmes?

Lieutenants take orders from two ministries: the Minister of Ecological Transition and the Minister of the Interior. Our instructions come from the departmental directorates and prefects. We are sworn in under the authority of hunting police.

Are you another of the ‘armed wing’ of the state, much like the expression characterising gendarmes or military personnel?

Yes, and the state acknowledges it. Our role is to intervene as a final resort. One of our key abilities is the capacity to legally override restrictions affecting hunting police or rural officers. Prefectural decrees allow us to act at any time, in any place and by any means.

What are your main functions?

We carry out prefectural orders. Our missions fall into five categories. First, our role is to advise the state on wildlife management, which means that a lieutenant takes part in every meeting. It is not necessarily consulted at every meeting but it is one of many attendees. We mediate conflicts, most notably between farmers and hunters who tend to fight over responsibilities, territories and sometimes do not speak to each other.

Lieutenants execute administrative measures taken by prefects or mayors. They are never taken by our service. Prefects and mayors are the only two authorities giving us orders. 

Our fourth mission deals with the fight against poaching. Either as witnesses or during operations with gendarmes or officers from the Office français de la biodiversité (OFB). Lastly, a lieutenant de louveterie can be called in to provide support during a sanitary crisis. 

Officers were called for assistance in Ain, Haute-Savoie and Savoie during a dermatosis outbreak affecting bovines last July. We were called in over suspicions of African swine fever pest in France years ago.

How are you different from hunters? 

Hunters practise a leisure activity. 

Lieutenants de louveterie carry out public service missions. Every mission is reported and listed through a dedicated app. Officers have a distinctive and regulated uniform.

What are the rules to become a lieutenant? Can our readers be one?Lieutenants must be less than 75 years old from the day of their nomination, own their hunting licence for at least five years, and bear an clean record when it comes to hunting, fishing and wildlife protection laws. 

They cannot maintain commercial activities linked to hunting. They are required to fund any means related to the activity, own at least four hunting dogs for boar or foxes, or at least two dogs with a specialty in digging out holes. 

They are required to bear French nationality but there is no problem when it comes to binationals. Selection takes place every five years.

Your name derives from wolves. Yet their numbers were drastically reduced over centuries. How many interventions are carried out for wolves?

They disappeared around the 1930s but returned to France, coming from Italy in the 2000s. They are now well established in the Alps. Since 2011, the state has faced conflicting obligations: protecting wolves under international law while limiting their damage to shepherds.

There are derogations delivered by the OFB. Our corps carries out 90% of what are called ‘defence shootings’, a shot triggered by an attack from a wolf on a herd.

Considering the drastic reduction of wolves, for which animals are you called in the most? Wild boar, foxes, jackdaw?

Our role became mostly symbolic in the 1950s due to the eradication of wolves on French land. Things changed with the surge in wild boars around the 2010s, which caused major damage. Wolves are also spreading across the Alps and into eastern France. The OFB estimates that France has 1,300 wolves, which is considered the viability threshold. The cull ceiling for 2024 was set at 16% or 209 wolves. In 2025, it will be 192.

There are four classes of animals. Lieutenants intervene on invasive animals like coypus and raccoons, considered class 1. Class 2 are what the government used to call ‘nuisibles’ (nuisance animals) like foxes and weasels. Class 3 includes game animals like rabbits, pigeons and wild boar. Foxes are not really a concern, more crows and corvids. 

We sometimes get called in for cormorants or rooks under derogation.In July 2019, 19 bison escaped from a circus and roamed around Megève. We were called in to put them down.

What about bears?

They are managed by OFB agents. No bear cull is authorised. They are mostly in the Pyrenées. Lynx, mostly in eastern France, are also monitored by OFB, not us.

What should people do if they find a wild boar in their garden?

If it just passes through, there is nothing to be done. It is called nature. If it returns daily and causes damage, the law does not allow private battue (beating). Owners with hunting licences can act within 150 metres of their property.

Otherwise, they must email the prefecture’s environmental services. We will inspect the site and act accordingly, whether they are boars, foxes or even crows damaging windows, as some of us have been asked to investigate.

Is there, to your knowledge, the equivalent to a lieutenant de louveterie in the UK or US? Do you have partnerships abroad?

Not to my knowledge. Nordic countries employ rangers, for example in Finland or Iceland for polar bear cases. In Switzerland, similar duties are handled by wildlife wardens.We have some partnerships with French local authorities, mainly for equipment, but not yet with foreign counterparts. I would welcome exchanges. 

The Association pour la protection des animaux sauvages (Aspas) is not a close friend, am I right?

Not really, no.

Typing lieutenant de louveterie on Google takes you very fast to one of their (Aspas’s) latest articles. The article calls you a ‘sinister institution’, even suggesting some of your actions border poaching.

It is written in the most activist way. Some colleagues have advised me to consider legal actions against it. My position is that I have no time for them and will not lose time and effort fighting them.

Would you agree that the corps uses many understatements when it comes to killing? 

It is called a ‘prélèvement’, with lieutenants ‘regulating’ wildlife. Legally, it is called an ‘administrative destruction’. Regulation is a management concept. Removing animals can restore balance, but if problems persist the cause lies elsewhere. Culling is not always the solution.

What are you looking to achieve as president of the association?

My main goal, right now, has been to defend the bill introduced by Socialist MP Sophie Pantel last July and which aims to introduce new rules. The bill wants to create the status of volontaire de louveterie to put the emphasis on their volunteering endeavour, articulate the job better with professional obligations with the introduction of a droit à l’absence (absentee right).

To quote a famous sketch from Les Inconnus, who impersonated hunters…

…”what’s the difference between a good and a bad hunter?” (laughs)

Exactly. Similarly, what is the difference between a good and a bad lieutenant de louveterie?

A good lieutenant puts public service first, giving time and energy without seeking hunting pleasure. A bad one hunts for himself.