2023-10-23 12:14:00
“Little Red Riding Hood”, “The Three Little Pigs”, “The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats” – tales about the evil wolf instill fear of this animal from childhood. In children’s books it symbolizes deceit and malice. But in the real world, the wolf, as a predatory animal, harms people by killing sheep and goats.
In the 19th century, people’s fear of wolves brought the predator to the brink of extinction. Over the course of 100 years, it slowly returned to its traditional habitats. Today there are approximately 17,000 wolves in Central Europe. They are protected in the European Union and can only be hunted in exceptional cases. However, recently the validity of these laws has increasingly been questioned.
Good for the ecosystem, bad for livestock
Scientific evidence shows that wolves are valuable to the environment. Research in the US and Canada shows that ecosystems where wolves live are recovering with the return of these predators.
Are wolves a danger to people in Europe? Photo: Jonas Ekstromer/STF/picture alliance
But, as it turned out, not everyone is happy about their return. As the wolf population increases, their habitats move closer to where people live. As predators attack livestock, fears are growing that they could also pose a threat to humans.
In Germany, this danger is most often felt by farmers in the federal state of Lower Saxony in the north-west of the country. From January to August 2023, wolves killed more than 600 domestic and grazing animals on this land. This forced some farmers to solve the problem themselves, and they began to shoot wolves, breaking the law.
Will the EU change the conservation status of wolves?
About a year ago, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen found herself at the center of debate after a wolf killed her pony Dolly in the paddock of her family’s home in Lower Saxony. Shortly thereafter, the wolf with ID number GW950m was allowed to be shot. But until now the animal has eluded hunters. And soon the court overturned this decision, prohibiting the shooting of the animal.
In early September 2023, Ursula von der Leyen spoke out again on the topic: “Concentrations of wolf packs in some areas of Europe now pose a danger to livestock and possibly people. The head of the European Commission called on local and national authorities to “take action where it is necessary”.
Wolves or agriculture?
Pressure on the European Commission from farmers and hunters is growing, they are calling for significant simplification of legal wolf hunting. “There is a need for faster and more effective control of wolves that hunt and kill grazing animals. In addition, a reliable process for regulating the wolf population is needed,” Joachim Rukwied, president of the German Peasants’ Union, said in August this year. Otherwise, pastoralism in Germany could disappear: “Grazing of cattle, sheep, goats and horses could be a thing of the past.”
In protest, Swiss farmers placed sheep carcasses in front of the Ticino cantonal government building in BellinzonaPhoto: Pablo Gianinazzi/Keystone/picture alliance
Conservationists are calling on the EU to stick to existing rules. “Wolves are part of the European landscape. Once we almost exterminated them, now we have to protect their place in the ecosystem,” Fabien Quétier from the Dutch organization Rewilding Europe emphasized in an interview with DW.
Back to the 18th century because of fear?
In the 1990s, the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park in the United States contributed to the restoration of river and forest ecosystems. Increased numbers of deer and elk led to forest damage and erosion. After reintroduction, wolves did not exterminate the population of artiodactyls, but they changed their behavior and now avoid the valleys and gorges of the national park. As a result, species of plants, insects, birds and mammals that were thought to be lost can now be found again in Yellowstone. Even some rivers have been restored.
In Europe, there are also indications that the return of the wolf is regulating the number of prey animals and thus reducing the consumption of certain plant species. “Essentially, you could say that wolves are the balance of ecosystems,” says Ketier.
Wolves attack people extremely rarely. According to a report by the environmental organization WWF, twelve such cases were reported from 2002 to 2020 in Europe and North America. But Ketier fears that irrational fears could have the same impact as in the 19th century: “There is a risk that extermination programs (of wolves. – Ord.) will be resumed. And this will have terrible consequences for the environment.” The EU now faces the challenge of finding a compromise that is fair to wolves, ecosystems and farmers.
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