• The video of Romain Planchon, a Lozérien, is of exceptional quality. It clearly shows an animal that has all the attributes of a wolf.
  • The encounter took place in an unlikely place, on the A75 motorway that the wolf crossed, without damage, when fleeing.
  • This video and especially the place where it was filmed interest specialists who expect to find tufts of hair, and therefore DNA, on a fence nearby, where it would have made its way.

That day, you had to have an eye to see it. Despite the snow that day on the Lozère, Romain Planchon did not miss it. While he was embarking on the A75 motorway, near Marvejols, a town of 4,841 inhabitants, this Lozérien immortalized an encounter that has since gone around the web. In the lens of his smartphone, his eyes met those of a wolf. He tried to follow him first with his gaze, then by running to his side. "But he was going faster than me," he smiled. The animal actually sowed it while crossing the highway, right in front of a truck, fortunately without damage.



On this rural territory, this taxi is used to crossing animals: wild boars, badgers. But a wolf is something else. "I think I have already met one, one night, on my way back from a repatriation. But I can't be sure. On the other hand, it is an extraordinary meeting. I'm very happy I had this chance," he explains. I posted it on social networks to share it as many people as possible. »

High chances of being able to explore the animal's DNA

In Lozère, as in many agricultural departments, the presence of the wolf is extremely divisive. On the one hand the breeders, on the other the defenders of animal diversity. Two visions that oppose even in the comments to the video. Romain Planchon, for his part, does not enter into this debate. Before posting his video, he contacted a technician from the Lozère hunters' federation: "they collect all the observation data in order to transmit them to the national network that evaluates the presence and number of wolves in France".

Its observation is also of great interest to the French Office for Biodiversity. On Friday morning, Romain Planchon received a call: "If he found himself on this side of the highway, it is because he most certainly went under the fence, perhaps because of holes dug by other animals before him. Which means that there are certainly hairs still hanging. With the DNA they contain, biodiversity experts will be able to know its origin, its sex." Rare traceability. And a document finally exceptional in more ways than one...


  • Planet
  • Occitania
  • Languedoc-Roussillon
  • Wolf
  • Video
  • Biodiversity