新的图像显示，法国北部出现了一只狼，这是一个世纪以来的第一次

Have wolves returned to the northern stretches of France? New photographs that were taken in Normandy certainly seem to suggest so. If the experts' suspicions are correct, it indicates this majestic beast has returned to the northernmost regions of France for the first time in over a century.

狼已经回到法国北部了吗?在诺曼底拍摄的新照片似乎证明了这一点。如果专家们的猜测是正确的，那么这只威严的野兽在一个多世纪以来第一次回到了法国最北部地区。

Camera trap images of a large canine were snapped on the night of April 7 to 8 near the town of Londinières in the Seine-Maritime department of Normandy, one of France’s northernmost regions.

4月7日至8日晚，法国最北端地区之一的诺曼底的塞纳河航海部的朗迪尼埃尔镇附近，一只大型犬被相机捕捉到。

The images were sent over to the French Office for Biodiversity who concluded it’s likely a Eurasian wolf (Canis lupus lupus), a subspecies of gray wolf. However, they were hesitant to definitively confirm the sighting until they obtain physical evidence or higher quality images, noting the animal could just be a large dog.

这些图像被送到法国生物多样性办公室，他们得出结论，这可能是一种欧亚狼(狼疮犬)，一种灰狼的亚种。然而，在获得实物证据或更高质量的图像之前，他们还不确定是否能证实这一发现。他们指出，这只动物可能只是一只大狗。

Tom Hale

Wolves are born wanderers, known to migrate across great distances over the course of years. In one instance, a female gray wolf was recorded embarking on a 14,000-kilometer (8,700-mile) journey between California and Oregon in the space of two years. So, while their presence in Normandy is most welcome, it's not totally unexpected.

狼是天生的流浪者，在漫长的岁月中会长途迁徙。在一个例子中，一只雌性灰狼被记录到在两年的时间里从加利福尼亚到俄勒冈的14000公里(8700英里)的旅程。所以，虽然他们在诺曼底的存在是最受欢迎的，但这并不完全出乎意料。

“The 'hopping' colonization system is characteristic of the wolf. The new installation territory can be separated from the original pack by several tens or even hundreds of kilometers, leaving empty spaces which can be colonized thereafter,” the local authorities of Seine-Maritime said in a press release.

“‘跳跃’殖民系统是狼的特征。新的安装区域可以与原包装区隔开几十甚至几百公里，留下空地，以后可以进行殖民，”Seine-Maritime的地方当局在一份新闻稿中说。

“In the fall, the young born in the spring take their full place in the group, forcing other individuals to leave the pack to seek a new territory to settle in. In the spring, subadults who cannot breed in packs leave their birthplace in search of a sexual partner,” they explained.

“在秋天，春天出生的幼崽占据了整个群体的位置，迫使其他个体离开群体去寻找新的领地定居。到了春天，无法成群繁殖的亚成虫就会离开出生地去寻找性伴侣，”他们解释道。

Wolves first returned to France in 1992 after crossing the border from Italy near the Alps in the south of the country. In more recent years, the species have been seen roaming further outside of the Alpine region throughout France, even as far as Somme. If the recent sighting is confirmed, it would be the first evidence of wolves in the northernmost region of Normandy in over 100 years.

1992年，狼群从意大利南部的阿尔卑斯山脉附近穿越边境回到法国。近年来，在法国各地，甚至远至索姆(Somme)，人们都看到过这种动物在阿尔卑斯山地区之外的更远地方游荡。如果最近的发现得到证实，这将是100多年来首次在诺曼底最北部地区发现狼的证据。

In centuries gone by, wolves could be found across most of Europe, but years of overhunting eventually caught up with the species by the start of the 20th century and their natural range became limited to small pockets in Italy, Spain, and Eastern Europe. Much of mainland Europe has recently seen an incredible resurgence of wolves, with confirmed reports of sightings in Belgium, Germany, and a handful of other European nations.

在过去的几个世纪里，狼可以在欧洲的大部分地区找到，但多年的过度捕猎最终在20世纪初赶上了这个物种，它们的自然活动范围被限制在意大利、西班牙和东欧的小块区域。欧洲大陆的大部分地区最近出现了令人难以置信的狼群死灰复燃的现象，据证实在比利时、德国和其他几个欧洲国家都有狼出没。

However, their struggle continues. Despite their scarcity, there have been a number of instances where hunters have shot the wolves returning to parts of Europe. Back in 2018, photographers even managed to catch on film the moment hunters shot dead the only female of the first wolf pack to live in Denmark for 200 years.

然而，他们的斗争仍在继续。尽管狼的数量稀少，但在欧洲的部分地区，猎人射杀狼的事件还是时有发生。早在2018年，摄影师们甚至成功地捕捉到了猎人射杀丹麦200年来第一批狼群中唯一的雌性的那一刻。