Return of the wolf to Germany

Oct 2001

The wolf, ‘the friend of the forest’ (because it regulates the deer populations which everywhere destroy tree seedlings), is making its slow return into Central Europe. From territories in northern Russia as well as the Carpathian Mountains in Romania and south-western Ukraine it moves via Poland into Germany, while some Italian wolves from the Abbruzo mountains migrate into south-eastern France.

‘For the first time [in 150 years] wild wolves have reared their young in Germany,’ says Frank Moerschel, biologist of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), referring to the wolf family (wolf pairs mate for life) that made its home on the area of a military training area near the Polish and Czech borders. ‘The site is situated exactly on one of the ancient wolf tracks,’ explains an enthusiastic Michael Gruschwitz of the Environmental Ministry of Saxony, ‘a huge area – absolutely quiet and very rich in wildlife.’

Update 2024: After the wolf population in Germany had grown to around 1,400 animals (20,000 across Europe), the European Union decided in Brussels in September 2024 to lift the (strict) protection status of the wolf. The decisive factor in the vote was the U-turn by the German government (which includes the ‘Green’ party), which is no longer in favour of wolf protection. However, it will take a few more bureaucratic years before the big bad wolf can be shot without penalty in the federal states and municipalities.