Expert advocates targeted wolf hunts to protect European livestock

EU member states should conduct targeted wolf hunts to protect livestock following the bloc's decision to ease protections on the species, wolf expert Eckhard Fuhr told dpa.

The European Union agreed in September to lower the protection status of wolves from strictly protected to protected, clearing the way for measures to regulate the growing population of the predator.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the time that in some parts of Europe, wolf pack numbers have "become a real danger for livestock and potentially also for humans," encouraging the authorities to "take action where necessary."

But Fuhr, a journalist and hunter who has written a book on the return of wolves to Europe, said it would be senseless to introduce a general hunting quota for culling wolves.

Allowing wolves to be shot during so-called drive hunts would not make life easier for livestock farmers, he said.

Instead, the wolf expert advised a targeted approach to hunt problematic packs.

"In certain areas where a kind of sheep-eating mentality is spreading among wolves, you have to intervene very early on and shoot too," he said, adding that it may be necessary to "make an entire region wolf-free for a period of time."

"It is ultimately far more important for biodiversity that we have grazing livestock in the countryside than that wolves are running around," Fuhr said.

Efforts to prevent wolves from killing livestock have previously focused on herd protection. But the recent political change of course shows that the effectiveness of herd protection is diminishing, said Fuhr.

He cited an example in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, where wolves are breaking through the several hundred kilometres of fencing that were erected in the countryside due to swine fever.

In such cases, the only way to provide a reasonable degree of security for livestock is through a combination of fencing and guard dogs, which only large companies can maintain, Fuhr said.

"It is important that all wolves that cannot be deterred by the reasonable and agreed herd protection measures are quickly and efficiently shot," said Fuhr. "This is not about shooting a few individual animals, but rather a kind of protective hunt that must take place alongside the necessary herd protection so that this herd protection retains its effect."

He said the best solution would be to have professional wolf hunters conduct targeted hunts, but that this is not provided for in the hunting system.

Having been extinct in large parts of Europe until the 1960s, there are currently around 19,000 wolves in the EU, according to conservationists.