“Fast and efficient”
Wolf expert recommends shooting problem packs
October 13, 2024, 1:07 p.m
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The wolf should be protected less strictly in the future because of attacks on farm animals. But there is uncertainty about the right path. Expert Eckhard Fuhr advocates shooting problematic animals – or entire packs.
After changing course in dealing with wolves, expert Eckhard Fuhr advises shooting problematic packs in order to protect grazing animals. However, he described calls for wolves to be hunted according to a general hunting quota as nonsensical. This “only brings disruption to the situation” but does not provide better protection for grazing animals, said Fuhr in Berlin.
“It would be important that all wolves who are not deterred by the reasonable and agreed herd protection are shot down quickly and efficiently,” said Fuhr. “This is not a shooting of a few individual individuals, but rather a type of protection hunt that must take place in parallel with the necessary herd protection so that this herd protection remains effective.”
To do this, you have to intervene very early in areas where “a kind of sheep-eating mentality is spreading among wolves” and also shoot there. “You may also have to shoot a lot of wolves and possibly also make an entire region wolf-free for a period of time,” Fuhr said. “This won’t be the case forever. New wolves will come.”
Details of the hunt are still unclear
In September, representatives of the EU states voted with Germany for reduced protection – from strictly protected to protected. This paved the way for a procedure to regulate the population of the predator, which is controversial because it preys on grazing animals. Practical questions are still being clarified.
The change of course shows that the assumption that the problem can be brought under control through ever better herd protection has apparently not been confirmed, says Fuhr, who is also the author of the book “Return of the Wolves” (2014). It is more likely that herd protection becomes less effective over time.
An example of this is the east of Brandenburg, where several 100 kilometers of fences have been put up in the landscape because of swine fever, but the wolves overcome them. “This has led to the fact that only the combination of a fence and a herd protection dog provides any degree of security. But that is a method of herd protection that only large companies – professionals – can really maintain,” says Fuhr.
Warnings of disappointment
In Germany, Brandenburg, Lower Saxony and Saxony are federal states with a particularly high population of wolves, with Brandenburg also occupying a top position in Europe with around 60 proven territories per area. Fuhr, who also heads the wolf working group in the Brandenburg-Berlin Ecological Hunting Association (ÖJV), cites an average of 500 to 600 wolves in the state.
So far, individual so-called withdrawals have often been stopped by administrative courts. Grazing livestock farmers and parts of the rural population are extremely upset about this.
Fuhr refers to the case of a she-wolf on the Lower Rhine (“Gloria”), who, as a very productive mother, raised “an entire dynasty of sheep-eaters.” “The fact that she is still alive and that no action has been taken is one of the absurdities that the legal regime of ‘strict protection’ brings about when it comes to wolves,” he said. On the other hand, there are completely inconspicuous packs. Such differences in behavior are also documented in Switzerland.
“In the end, it is much more important for biodiversity that we have grazing livestock in the landscape than that we have wolves running around in the landscape,” said Fuhr. However, he warned of disappointments: “The claim that widespread hunting and the reduction in the total number, as demanded by the farmers’ association and hunting association, makes life easier for grazing livestock farmers is not correct.”
Professional wolf hunters needed?
The Brandenburg State Hunting Association, on the other hand, recently called for a fixed hunting season for wolves and would also welcome the introduction of an upper limit for the animals.
Fuhr, on the other hand, warned against releasing wolves for shooting during so-called mobile hunts. These hunts kill and regulate deer, red deer and wild boar without causing any protests. “If the wolf were put on the hit list there, this peace would be over,” said Fuhr. In his words, the best thing would be “to have professional forces, wolf hunters, to do it, but you have to be realistic.” This is not provided for in the hunting system.
After the fundamental decision to reduce protection for wolves, the Nature Conservation Association of Germany (Nabu) warned against further cuts in nature and species protection. “That would be serious damage to the protection of all our livelihoods,” said Nabu President Jörg-Andreas Krüger. He demanded that, after shrill tones in the European election campaign, the focus should again be on developing viable solutions to conflicts with wolves.