As of: February 15, 2024, 6:00 a.m
By: Boris Forstner
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This is the official area of the Staffelsee-West district.
© dbbw
The offspring of wolves in the Staffelsee-West district have become “on record” for the first time: a cunning deer calf near Schöffau could be assigned to one of the three puppies.
An overview of the nationwide wolf population shows that there are many more packs in eastern Germany - but the native ones are still something special.
Schöffau/Böbing – Near Schöffau on the Weilheim-Schongau/Garmisch-Partenkirchen district border, a forest owner discovered a torn deer calf on January 10th.
The responsible hunting manager, Johann Samm, had already suspected at that time that it could have been a wolf because the deer calf not only had a throat bite but had also been gutted.
Samm even suspected that there were several wolves - and was at least right about one thing, as the responsible State Office for the Environment (LfU) has now confirmed.
Wildlife camera showed three puppies
After a photo from a wildlife camera showed three puppies at the end of November, the LfU confirmed that the local pair had had offspring in the Staffelsee-West area and is now considered a pack.
DNA traces of a previously unknown wolf were discovered on the dead deer calf, which was actually in a deer-free area: a female pup from parents GW3050f and GW2973m.
The new wolf was given the name GW3847f.
When asked, a spokesman for the State Office for the Environment describes how this name came about: “The abbreviation is a laboratory abbreviation and stands for: Genetic Wolf (GW), the laboratory number of the animal (3847) and the gender (f/female or m/ male)." This means that the animals are named after the name of the first sample with which they are identified.
DNA trace of a wolf pup has now been secured
Incidentally, no further wolf DNA was discovered on the dead deer calf.
On the one hand, this could mean that no DNA was found from the other animals, or that the wolf was traveling alone - after all, with a usual birth time in April or May, wolves are almost fully grown at ten months.
But it is still too early to leave the pack.
Apart from the photo evidence in November, there has been no genetic evidence of the other two wolf pups, according to the LfU.
Wolf territory is approximately 200 square kilometers in size
The area covered by the Staffelsee-West district can be clearly seen on the website of the Federal Documentation and Advisory Center on the subject of wolves: A point west of the Staffelsee in the municipality of Uffing was chosen and a circular radius of 16 kilometers was then drawn, which means that Then 200 square kilometers should roughly correspond to the size of a wolf territory.
Of course, an exact demarcation cannot be made, but officially the wooded area extends in the east beyond Lake Staffelsee to Murnau, in the south to Hinters Hörnle near Bad Kohlgrub, in the west to Bad Bayersoien and in the north almost to Peißenberg/Huglfing.
The cattle killed near Böbing in June 2023 were also the fault of the wolves
This also corresponds to the cracks that have become known so far in the previous wolf pair and current pack, even if the LfU never announces exactly where cracks occur.
But some cases become public, like the cattle killed near Böbing on June 19th, which was caused by the local wolves.
Some hunters or farmers are excited to see what kind of carcass remains they will find when they go back to the forest more often after the winter.
However, possible wolf cracks can no longer be detected.
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The wolf feels particularly at home in the east and north of Germany
When you look at the map of Germany, it becomes clear: The wolf feels particularly at home in the east and north of Germany, where there are dozens of packs.
In the west there are only isolated populations, even fewer in Baden-Wüttemberg.
In Bavaria, in the 2022/23 monitoring year, there were only pairs or packs east of Nuremberg and on the Czech border near Zwiesel, as well as in the Altmühltal west of Ingolstadt - and here.
There's a lot more going on near Ingolstadt: last year, not only were seven puppies photographed by a camera trap, but rows of sheep, goats and fallow deer and red deer were also captured in their enclosures.
Finally, on January 11th, a puppy was found dead, it was named GW3845m - so it was only slightly identified before our puppy.
By the way: Everything from the region is also available in our regular Schongau newsletter.
And in our Weilheim-Penzberg newsletter.
All news and stories can also be found on the Schongauer Nachrichten Facebook page.
The local newspapers in the Weilheim-Schongau district are represented on Instagram under “merkur_wm_sog”.