As of: January 31, 2024, 6:02 a.m
By: Boris Forstner
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Young wolves: This picture of a camera trap comes from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
A picture with three puppies was also taken in the Weilheim-Schongau district at the end of November, as confirmed by the State Office for the Environment.
© Dpa
The first pair of wolves in the region has produced offspring: As the State Office for the Environment reports, there is photo evidence of three wolf pups from the Weilheim-Schongau district.
District - It has been almost a year and a half since the female wolf with the identifier GW3050f was first officially noticed in the region.
On October 13th and 28th, 2022, the solution, i.e. the animal's feces, was detected.
On January 23rd and 26th, 2023, traces of urine from the wolf were found in the snow - and from another animal, namely a male wolf with the identifier GW2187m.
Because this happened in the middle of the so-called mating season, when wolves mate, it quickly became clear to experts that offspring might be expected there.
This has now been officially confirmed by an image from a wildlife camera: “The large carnivore department at the Bavarian State Office for the Environment has recordings from a wildlife camera from November 28th from the Weilheim-Schongau district, in which three puppies can be seen,” said an LfU- Speaker on request.
After appropriate examination, the evidence was published on the wolf monitoring page.
State Office for the Environment confirms wolf offspring in the Weilheim-Schongau district
Since it became clear that a pair of wolves had found each other there, they were classified as loyal to the location and given a territory called “Staffelsee-West”.
Wolf territories are large, covering 100 to 350 hectares depending on the size of a pack, according to the LfU.
The Staffelsee-West district extends over parts of the Weilheim-Schongau and Garmisch-Partenkirchen districts.
The interesting question is whether GW2187m is actually the father of the puppies.
Because in June, when a farm animal was torn apart, it was not her DNA that was discovered next to the female wolf, but that of another male wolf with the identifier GW2973m.
“It is extremely difficult to distinguish individual wolves from photographs.
Therefore, no reliable statement about the parents is possible,” says the LfU in response to this question.
In addition to the photo evidence of the puppies, there were three other confirmed camera trap records from the Staffelsee-West area between June and November.
The mother animal, on the other hand, continued to diligently leave traces, be it as a solution or in several sheep tears.
Wolf cubs at the age of six to seven months are almost as big as their parents
It will be exciting to see what happens next in the spring when farmers drive their cattle and sheep back out to pasture.
The young wolves, which were born after a gestation period of around two months (presumably in early summer), are almost as big as their parents at the age of six to seven months.
Wolves live in packs, which as a family group consist of the parents and their offspring from the current year and the last two to three years.
According to the LfU homepage, there is no competitive hierarchy, as is known from keeping wolves in captivity, when it comes to wild wolves.
As a rule, young wolves leave their parental territory between the ages of ten and 22 months and look for a sexual partner and a territory of their own.
BBV district chairman considers development to be “dramatic”
Wolfgang Scholz, district chairman of the Bavarian Farmers' Association, considers the development of wolves to be “dramatic”.
There is now a lot of distrust of the LfU's practice.
Scholz therefore very much welcomes the fact that the district office is currently training its own experts to detect wolves.
“We want someone from the agricultural side to become such an expert,” demands Scholz.
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By the way: Everything from the region is also available in our regular Schongau newsletter. And in our Weilheim-Penzberg newsletter.
Joseph Grasegger from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, chairman of the regional association of Bavarian sheep farmers, sees agriculture in the foothills of the Alps “on the brink of extinction” if things continue like this.
The herd protection measures as currently required are not feasible, “the federal government has now recognized that,” says Grasegger.
“We are for pasture zones, with all the consequences” – including the shooting of wolves in these zones.
The local newspapers in the Weilheim-Schongau district are represented on Instagram under “merkur_wm_sog”.