Appearances of Beasts and Mystery-Cats in France

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8932233
AutoresVéronique Campion‐vincent (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, autor de correspondencia), Veronique Campion-Vincent
Año1992
Volumen103
Número2
Páginas160-183
Fecha de publicación1992-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaFolklore (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0015-587X • E-ISSN: 1469-8315
EditorialRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0015587x.1992.9715840
OpenAlexW2064133885
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas3

These appearances are linked to social resistance towards the new French policies of nature conservation insofar as these policies lead to measures affecting sensitive wildlife animal species. This resistance is especially expressed through, firstly, the passionate assertion that protected birds (seagulls, buzzards or herons) are proliferating harmfully. Protests are especially numerous and vivid for herons. Here are a few examples. In an article about the region of Sologne published in 1989 in an outdoor magazine Grands Reportages, it is said that their population has increased tenfold in the past ten years and that they decimate the fishes of Sologne's numerous ponds because of their huge and uncontrollable appetite. Any pond owner will readily explain to you what personal trick he uses to keep them at bay while remaining within the limits of the law that protects these birds (a transparent nylon thread circling the pond is said to be a good repellent). In October 1990, vehement protests by a fish farmer in the South-East marshland of Les Dombes (departement of Ain-to locate the quoted departements, see map on p. 166) who asserted that he was overrun by herons, almost swamped the ecological early Saturday morning radio programme Frdquence buissonniere. Secondly, there are accusations (equally passionate) of deliberate releases of predators that lead to their pullulation: mainly vipers and foxes, but also big cats. For vipers, assertions of organised releases, carried out from aircraft, have persisted since the mid-seventies. Accusing first serum-producing labs, then nature protectors and officials, these stories are connected to changes in the practices which exploited these strongly tabooed animals and have been reinforced by the 1979 decrees that outlawed the trade in them. After the collective emotions of the early eighties, the phenomenon has entered a more diffuse and stable phase, but it is still vigorous, and organised viper-releases are regarded as true facts by several diversified sections of the French population. Three independent studies of the phenomenon have been conducted.2

Archaeology · Biology · Fishery · Geography · Honour · Marsh · Political science · Population · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · Wetland · Wildlife · Demography · Diverse Cultural and Historical Studies · Ecology · French Urban and Social Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law