Often considered the “Mr. Wolf” in Hérault, Pascal Arnaud is retiring

Pascal Arnaud sera officiellement à la retraite dans quelques jours. Midi Libre – JEROME MOUILLOT

A great connoisseur of Larzac and Canis Lupus, the former head of the OFB territorial unit Pascal Arnaud was, among other things, a gamekeeper before the creation of the French Office for Biodiversity.

As a child, Pascal Arnaud spent hours observing ants. “I dreamed of living deep in the woods”, he says, Basque beret screwed on his head. At 65 and a half, about to take a well-deserved retirement after having extended his activity as head of the territorial unit at the French Biodiversity Office in Grabels by two years, this Gorgasien will have remained faithful to his childhood dreams. Father of three daughters, he lives in the heart of the Cirque du Bout de Monde with his wife and will have made a career in nature observing, exchanging, and protecting much more than ants. The one who knows the Larzac like the back of his hand, born in Bédarieux in 1959, is often considered the “Mr. Wolf” in the department. 10 years ago, he was one of those who saw the arrival of the great predator in Hérault and, on an often divisive subject, has always managed to maintain balance and the respect of both the pros and the anti-wolves. He also knew how to enforce a law* that aims to ensure the protection of a species while authorizing defensive shootings, under certain conditions, against the animal.

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“Working on the wolf is fabulous”, Pascal Arnaud

“As part of our work, we have a duty of reserve and we are neutral. Even more so when it comes to species like this one”, confides the civil servant who is as respectful of naturalists as of hikers or, of course, breeders. Described by his peers as “altruistic, peasant in the sense of a man of the country, someone who knows the territory”, hunter and fisherman…“especially a fisherman”, he specifies, this “contemplative, never displays his opinions on the subject. Above all, he “does not judge” and “understands that breeders have the possibility of defending themselves”. He will remain an active correspondent for the wolf network, “working on the wolf is fabulous”, he confides, as addicted to Canis Lupus.

Well before joining the OFB, created in 2020,“He was a pioneer in the knowledge and love of the nature that surrounds him. He was a naturalist gamekeeper*, or rather a well of knowledge who knew how to pass on his passion for botany, geology, fauna, mushrooms, and the history of the territory”, salutes Vincent Tarbouriech, head of the departmental service of the OFB (34). In Saint-Etienne-de-Gourgas, in the olive grove which offers a breathtaking view of the “end of the world”, Pascal Arnaud will continue to take the pulse of biodiversity, at 360°. “I really fulfilled myself in my job. I had a certain serenity within me. Nature only reinforced that,” he savours.

Pascal Arnaud is an active correspondent for the woodcock network. He is also part of the mycological association of the high cantons…

Protection: on December 3, the Bern Convention, which ensures the protection of wildlife in Europe, approved the downgrading of the wolf from a strictly protected species to a protected species.

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