Is the wolf coming to Berlin?
After a photo shoot in the Döberitzer Heide, experts believe that the animals will not move to the capital in the foreseeable future.
But what about trial tours?
Berlin - After photos of wolves in the Döberitzer Heide not far from the Berlin city limits, experts believe that exploring the animals in the capital is possible in the future. "But it is not to be expected that wolves will move to Berlin," emphasized Derk Ehlert, wildlife expert with the Berlin environmental administration. The city is not a living space for them. “Wolves hunt and kill. You won't find enough prey in Berlin. The wild boars with us are not enough. "
Last week it became known that a wolf pack had settled within the Berlin motorway ring in Brandenburg area. Two parent animals and four puppies were photographed in the Döberitzer Heide, west of Berlin. It was the first evidence of this 4500 hectare nature reserve at the gates of Potsdam and Berlin. According to the Federal Documentation and Advice Center on Wolf (DBBW), there are already 32 wolf territories in Brandenburg.
However, the area in the Döberitzer Heide is considered too small for a whole pack of wolves. It is more of a resting and transit area. After two years at the latest, parent animals usually also drive away their young. They then have to look for their own territory. To do this, they can cover hundreds of kilometers. A great danger for young wolves is road traffic and illegal shooting, said wildlife expert Ehlert.
The Brandenburg State Environment Agency does not rule out wolves sniffing in the outskirts of Berlin.
Especially when there is a high proportion of forest or corn fields to hide, said spokesman Thomas Frey.
The animals could walk between 30 to 50 kilometers a day.
For a settlement, however, they needed larger and undisturbed areas of retreat.
Berlin doesn't offer that.
The motorway ring also represents a barrier.
Nobody will know exactly where the heather wolves are going.
The animals didn't get any channels, said Frey.
This elaborate procedure is reserved for a few, predominantly scientifically oriented projects.
But wolves also don't have a GPS to help them walk around Berlin. For the Brandenburg wolf expert Verena Harms, an animal can therefore get lost in urban areas at any time. “A wolf doesn't know what to expect there,” she says. It is more likely that the animals involuntarily got into a city and then never found their way out again. In Frankfurt am Main there was already evidence of a wolf - the animal had been run over. Harms also does not assume that wolves will settle in Berlin in the foreseeable future.
So far, there is only one proof of a wolf visit for the capital, reported Ehlert.
That was in January 2020. At that time, the young she-wolf "Juli" from Saxony, who wore a transmitter, poked her curious nose into Berlin-Adlershof after a long hike.
Except for the station data, however, it left no trace.
“We didn't find any paw prints, solution or crack marks.
It was practically invisible, ”reported Ehlert.
After a short time, "July" moved on to Mecklenburg.
There she found a partner, according to the Saxon Wolf Monitoring.
In the meantime, however, the she-wolf has died - probably a natural death before or during childbirth.
Because wolf fetuses were also found on her corpse.
So far there have been no photo trap portraits of wolves for Berlin, added Ehlert.
What is reported are usually incorrect observations.
Even after livestock were cracked in Berlin, there had been no DNA evidence for wolves so far.
They were assigned to dogs - or it was too late for an analysis.
However, this does not exclude the presence of wolves in Berlin, said Ehlert.
Because they are one thing above all else: secret light.
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According to DBBW information, the wolf has enjoyed the highest possible protection in Germany since reunification in 1990.
According to the latest data for the monitoring year 2019/20, 128 packs, 39 wolf pairs and 9 individual animals were detected nationwide.
In 2020, however, the agency also registered 942 attacks by wolves on farm animals, most of them in Lower Saxony and Brandenburg.
According to DBBW, the wolf in Saxony is the only federal state that is also listed in hunting law again.
The German Hunting Association calls for a change in the status of wolves from “strictly protected” to “conditionally protected”.
However, the association condemns the illegal killing of wolves.
dpa
