Eder: Enabling the coexistence of wolves and livestock

Created: 01/28/2022, 14:41

Katrin Eder (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), Minister for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy and Mobility.

© Arne Dedert/dpa/archive image

A new coordination center in Rhineland-Palatinate will help with questions about wolves and lynxes in the state.

It is also about protective measures - such as fences or motion transmitters.

Trippstadt - A pair of wolves from the Westerwald is to be equipped with a movement transmitter in order to use protective measures more specifically.

"This is to determine exactly where the animals are and how they behave," said the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of the Environment on Friday.

It is not yet clear when the collar transmitters will be attached.

"I see radio transmitters as a more suitable means of pacifying the conflict between wolves and livestock keepers," said Minister Katrin Eder during a visit to the new Lynx and Wolf Coordination Center (KLUWO) in Trippstadt, Palatinate.

"Equipment is by no means the preliminary stage to removal." Removal often means catching or killing the animal in accordance with the Federal Nature Conservation Act.

"The transmitter benefits both the wolf and the farm animals and thus the people," emphasized Eder.

If it is known where a wolf is roaming and spying out its next victim, one can take targeted action against it.

"There are a whole range of options for this: for example, that you can borrow a suitable fence practically overnight," said the Greens politician.

KLUWO manager Julian Sandrini said: "By protecting livestock, for example with wolf-repellent fences, wolves learn that they are not easy prey." Cracks can be minimized in this way.

"The wolf has to learn: If there is a wolf-repellent fence here, I don't stand a chance here." The wolves can be stunned with a gunshot for transmitters, for example, or they can be arrested with so-called soft-catch traps.

In Rhineland-Palatinate, a male wolf was found particularly often in the Westerwald last year.

The gray wolf with the identifier GW1896m is said to be responsible for more than 30 livestock tears.

A she-wolf identified as GW1415f was also involved in some.

This was revealed by DNA tests on the bite wounds.

Eder emphasized: "It is important to me to protect the wolf as an endangered species and at the same time to prevent the wolf from killing livestock as far as possible." Her goal is to use protective measures to enable wolves and livestock to live side by side and to support grazers accordingly.

The coordination center will help - both with advice on fences and with the application for funding.

In May 2021, there was a first genetic wolf detection in the Hunsrück-Hochwald National Park.

Because it is assumed that wolves and lynxes continue to roam the park, dozens of photo traps have been set up there as part of a project.

The wildlife cameras would be used to get clues about the possible presence of so-called large carnivores, said the National Park Office in Birkenfeld.

more on the subject

Wolf on the rise: New camera trap project

Camera trap project for wolves and lynxes in the national park

Unknown hang up wolf warning signs in Emsland

The wolf has been detected four times in Luxembourg.

Most recently, this was "clearly" successful in the north of the country on the basis of photos, as announced by the administration and the Ministry of the Environment.

The first wolf appeared in the Holzem-Garnich area in 2017, there was evidence in Fouhren in 2018 and in the Niederanven area in 2020.

A wolf had also been sighted in the area in Belgium bordering the canton of Clervaux.

The canton borders in the east on the Rhineland-Palatinate Eifel.

The lynx - the largest cat of prey in Europe - is roaming through Rhineland-Palatinate again.

This is made possible by a resettlement project.

dpa