Mercantour

Declared in 1979 in the Maritime Alps near Nice, Mercantour is celebrated for an episode of spontaneous conservation: in 1992 a group of wolves crossed the border from Italy and recolonised these mountains of their own accord, marking the wolf's natural return to France after more than sixty years' absence — with no artificial reintroduction involved — a milestone still studied, and still a source of tension with local livestock farming.