Expert warns: "The culture wolf is a new situation"
Created: 07/09/2022 06:33
By: Alexandra Korimorth
Great interest: More than 600 alpine farmers, farmers, nature and animal rights activists, politicians and representatives of authorities and associations came to the event in the Miesbacher Oberlandhalle.
© Stefan Schweihofer
The wolf moves the Bavarians: More than 600 alpine farmers, farmers, nature and animal rights activists, politicians and representatives of authorities and associations accepted the invitation of the farmers' association to the Oberlandhalle in Miesbach on Thursday evening.
For three and a half hours it was about the wolf and the preservation of pasture and alpine farming.
The message is clear.
Miesbach – The listeners had traveled all the way from the Allgäu to hear how to deal with canis lupus, which is on the advance in the Alps.
District Administrator Olaf von Löwis took the floor before the keynote speech.
Von Löwis summarized the latest efforts by farmers in the Miesbach district and made it clear that the wolf and its monitoring are part of the federal government's coalition agreement: "The approaches are there.
Then do it!” he shouted in the direction of Berlin.
Because it is the federal government that has to influence EU policy so that the wolf cannot gain a foothold in the Alpine region.
"We need the downgrading of the European protection status as well as shooting permits, regionally differentiated stock management that conforms with European law and areas free of wolf packs," was his message.
Josef Faas from the Lower Nature Conservation Authority made it clear what a great treasure the pasture areas of the Alps are: “Cultural biotopes need continuous grazing and care.
It is an obligation under European law to preserve these areas.” A wolf population and the preservation of biodiversity are not compatible.
Three kilograms of meat a day
The Swiss wolf expert, animal and nature conservationist and landscaper Marcel Züger from Salouf in Graubünden explained why.
He explained the increase in the wolf population in his homeland, which is a few years ahead of Bavaria in terms of development.
The first wolf from Italy settled there in 1995.
In 2011 there were around ten wolves.
2021 already 150 animals in 16 packs.
A pack usually consists of five to ten animals.
Züger spoke of the performance and learning ability of the animals, which would eat three kilograms of meat per day.
"A pack of wolves eats 250 deer per year," the expert made clear.
And it doesn't stop there.
Wolves hunt and eat sheep, cows, horses, even bison.
"In 2020, the eleven packs in Switzerland tore 815 sheep," said Züger, showing the corresponding photos of torn animals in the immediate vicinity of a settlement or on a cross-country ski trail.
He showed a film of wolves jumping over fences.
The film didn't work for the scenes showing how two livestock guardian dogs became wolf prey within two minutes – thank God.
Trainable animal
He also disproved the myth that wolves only hunt in the twilight and darkness with photographic evidence.
"We have a wrong, outdated image of the wolf," he stated.
“The wild wolf in the east was rare and shy, but in the meantime he has learned that there is no danger from humans.
We are producing a new wolf, the culture wolf.” And one cannot live with this – neither agriculture nor nature conservation.
According to Züger, the favorable conservation status is met with the 17,000 wolves in mainland Europe.
Accordingly, "defense kills" should be allowed in the range of 21 percent.
He therefore called for transparent communication and for the farmers' costs for fences and livestock guard dogs to be paid for by the public sector.
Züger called for grazing zones, a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to attacks, and official wolf management.
"The laissez-faire policy amounts to eradicating the wolf again," he said urgently and to applause.
A coexistence can only work with a stock limit.
In the discussion that followed, Züger made it clear that many different measures are needed to get rid of the wolf and protect the pasture landscape.
But the most important thing is to convince society to support this policy.
Almbauer Bernd Gasteiger invited all animal and nature conservationists next week to the on-site meeting on the Alm.
Bird conservationist Harda von Poser also spoke out against privileging the wolf.
A professional hunter also made it clear: "If the wolf wants to survive here, it has to be hunted." All in all, there was no one in the upper hall who would have spoken out in favor of a regulated spread of the wolf.
Even Manfred Burger from the Bund Naturschutz wanted to know what regulation would look like if it was the only weapon against the wolf.
“Integrating the wolf is expensive and time-consuming.
It would be ideal to tag every wolf in the entire Alpine region and have one supervisor per pack," said Züger.
also read
Multi-storey car park: Surrendered at 28,000 euros per parking space
Fischbachauer sentenced: fake vaccination certificates presented in pharmacy
District chairman Josef Huber was satisfied with the objectivity of the evening.
He hopes that these arguments will start a socio-political discourse "so that politics follows society".
Overview of wolf populations worldwide:
Sweden: 300, Norway: 120, France: 600, Yellowstone Park USA: 100, Eastern Turkey: 6000, Kazakhstan: 90,000, Brandenburg: 500, Lower Saxony: 400, Graubünden 65.