Very quickly, the traces of fangs and the location of the belly of the cow, abandoned on the side, gave clues suggesting the attack of a wolf. We have had official confirmation of this for a few hours via the Walloon Wolf Network of the SPW of Wallonia: the wolf that raged around ten days ago south of Arlon is indeed an itinerant wolf, a young wolf detached from its former pack in Germany and looking for new territories.
“The results of our genetic laboratory reveal that the wolf which attacked this heifer near Messancy is an animal whose genetic characteristics are new in Wallonia.says Alain Licoppe, of the Réseau Loup Wallon. It is a wolf of German-Polish line, but with a haplotype from the maternal line, W 2.”
So far in Wallonia, all the wolves found carry the W1 haplotype (the haplotype is a group of alleles of different genes located on the same chromosome and usually transmitted together). This W 1 marker is notably that of the five permanent wolves in the Hautes Fagnes. The wolves of the Italo-Alpine line carry haplotype W22, especially the wolf in the Nord-Eifel.
As in Malmedy
The Réseau Loup Wallon concludes that the Sélange wolf is the same German-Polish wolf, type W 2, which killed a calf in Bellevaux (Malmédy) on November 9.
“He is an isolated young wolf who left his pack coming from Germany and has probably just crossed eastern Belgium from north to south, from the province of Liège to southern Luxembourg. But today, he can already be very far away if he is looking for a territory. A wolf travels between 30 and 40 km a day”says Alain Licoppe.
The Walloon expert confirms that it is very rare for a wolf to attack an animal as massive as a cow.
The young heifer from Sélange weighed between 300 and 350 kilos. In 97% of cases, wolves attack wild prey (roe deer, deer, wild boar). But sheep and goats are also tempting prey for this predator. And we see, in Malmédy and Sélange, that it also attacks cattle.
