Wolf tears animals at the gates of Munich - he has never been so close - Expert: shooting doesn't bring anything

The wolf continues to spread in Bavaria.

Now, for the first time, an animal has been detected in the Freising district, as studies after a crack in a fallow deer enclosure have shown.

The debate about limiting the wolf population continues.

• A wolf was found in the northern district of Freising.

• There have been other reports of dead wildlife in the region.

• Animal owners are calling for wolf populations to be regulated at the federal level.

Walls

- When

a female animal was found dead

on October 25th in a

near Mauern in the northern

, nobody there thought of the wolf.

Mauern's hunting director Georg Sixt lives 600 meters as the crow flies from the enclosure.

He examined the torn fallow deer himself and says: “The paw prints in the mud were 13 centimeters long, the image that was eaten indicated a predator.

But of course nobody expected a wolf.

We haven't had that before. ”So far.

Because yesterday the State Office for the Environment confirmed after examining the genetic samples: It was a wolf.

This means that other reports from the region appear in a new light.

For example, a family in

near Moosburg, a

few kilometers away,

discovered a mangled deer in the garden - back then, stray dogs were suspected.

And dead animals were also found in a neighboring fallow deer enclosure near walls.

Now the classic wolf dilemma also arises for the Freising district, as Sixt says.

“The population wants it, but nobody wants it locally.” But he also emphasizes that he sees “zero dangers” for people.

In any case, after four weeks, the wolf could have moved on hundreds of kilometers by now.

The livestock owners in the area can now apply for funding for herd protection measures such as electric fences at the responsible agricultural authorities.

According to figures from the State Office for the Environment, there are currently local animals in seven regions in Bavaria: In the Allgäu Alps, in the north and south of the Bavarian Forest National Park, at the Grafenwöhr military training area, in the Veldensteiner Forest and in the Rhön.

In and around Upper Bavaria, individual records were most recently documented in Chiemgau, near Eichstätt and in the Aichach-Friedberg district.

128 wolf packs in Germany

The Federal Agency for Nature Conservation reports 128 wolf packs across Germany, plus 35 wolf pairs and ten sedentary lone wolves.

The animals are most common in Brandenburg, Saxony and Lower Saxony.

In view of the increasing numbers, the action alliance Forum Natur, in which the German Farmers 'Association and other animal keepers have joined forces with hunters and forest owners, called on the federal states' environment ministers to regulate wolves.

“With at least 1,800 wolves, a conservation status has long been reached that allows the population to be limited,” said Bernhard Krüsken, Secretary General of the German Farmers' Association.

Krüsken is thereby alluding to the so-called favorable conservation status, which according to the Habitats Directive must be achieved before exceptions to the strict protection status of the wolf are possible.

However, it doesn't just depend on the number of animals, as Uwe Friedel from the Association for Nature Conservation in Bavaria emphasizes.

“It's also about whether the wolf has repopulated its natural habitat.

And it's pretty big in Bavaria. "

Conservationists advocate more help for grazing animal owners

In any case, conservationist Friedel sees no point in regulation, i.e. the shooting down of individual wolves.

“That stirs up the false hope among animal owners that if we shoot a few wolves, everything will be fine again.” Instead, everything must be done to support the owners in protecting their animals on the pasture.

Friedel would like funding for herd protection measures such as electric fences for animal keepers throughout Bavaria - not only after a wolf certificate for the region there.

“That is a lot of money all at once, but we could raise the wolves early.” Smaller livestock keepers or alpine farmers in particular do not have the capacity for time-consuming herd protection.

"Here, for example, fencing teams based at the machine ring and sponsored by the state could help," suggests Friedel.