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This article addresses the notion of controversy (as distinct from tension and conflict) regarding the relationship between livestock farming and vultures which provide services by disposing of animal carcasses. In two distinct areas (the Grands Causses and the Provençal Baronnies), the interactions observed reveal the tensions linked to the portrayal of these scavenging birds as predators, concerning episodes where doubt had settled, thus maintaining forms of uncertainty about the political decisions to be made concerning protected species, and fuelling controversy as a result. The analysis makes it possible to invoke the notions of “spatial arrangements”, applied to the supplementary feeding stations for the vultures, and of the “rightful place” of animals. The role of representations, of exacerbated media coverage of cases of “attacks”, as well as the anteriority of the presence and reintroduction of vultures account for the more or less strong reactions to the birds. Besides, the conflicts generated by the return of wolves, the associative, social, and cultural fabric in which the controversy unfolds explains the differing levels of tension between the two areas. In a more general way, the article is part of the field of political geography of the environment, more precisely of polemogeography, by questioning the relations between humans and non-humans, as well as the co-presence of the latter with a pastoral industry weakened by national and international economic and political contexts.

Cet article interroge la notion de controverse au sujet des rapports entre l’élevage et les vautours qui rendent des services aux humains en éliminant les carcasses. Sur deux terrains distincts (les Grands Causses et les Baronnies provençales), les interactions observées dévoilent les mises en tension liées à la présentation de ces oiseaux charognards en prédateurs, lors d’épisodes où le doute s’est installé, entretenant des formes d’incertitude autour des décisions politiques à prendre au sujet d’espèces protégées, alimentant la controverse. L’analyse permet d’invoquer les notions de « dispositif spatial », appliqué aux placettes d’équarrissage, et de « juste place » des animaux. Les conflits générés par le retour des loups, le tissu associatif, social et culturel dans lequel se déploie la controverse expliquent des niveaux de tensions différenciés entre les deux terrains.