2023-11-03 21:00:00
The wolf and man regularly collide in the Netherlands. The call to be allowed to shoot the wolf is getting louder, but is this really the best solution? When the father is killed, his young have to go hunting, and they do it a lot more sloppily.
Ursula von der Leyen’s statement was a big surprise for the press present. “The density of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger to livestock and possibly also to humans. I urge local and national authorities to take action where necessary,” the President of the European Commission said.
Local communities, scientists and other interested parties were asked to submit relevant information on the impact with the wolf. Von der Leyen thus opens the door ajar, where the responsible European Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius always kept it firmly closed. The implicit message: if the newly obtained information gives reason to do so, the wolf can be protected less strictly to enable the preventive shooting of wolves.
Demarcated area
In the Netherlands, the municipality of Nunspeet, the municipality of Ermelo and the Province of Gelderland have taken the outstretched hand of the European Commission and requested permission to take more ‘management measures’. The municipality of Nunspeet even wants to kill every wolf in a defined area for six months.
The far-reaching proposals show the impasse the discussion surrounding the wolf has reached. Many residents around the Veluwe and Drenthe, especially sheep farmers and hobby farmers, are afraid. The wolf feels out of control and life-threatening. At the same time, the law and international treaties currently offer little room for measures that can provide a sense of control, such as active shooting and expulsion. Are these measures necessary to limit wolf-human conflict?
On Saturday, March 7, 2015, the first wolf entered the Netherlands following a century and a half of absence. It marked the beginning of a Dutch wolf population. There are currently at least 22 adult wolves living in the Netherlands. The Veluwe is home to seven packs, with a pack consisting of a male and a female, possibly with young ones. Two packs still live in the border area of Friesland and Drenthe. Furthermore, a solitary wolf has settled in the Brabantse Groote Heide. There are two wandering wolves around the Utrechtse Heuvelrug and a wanderer near Assen.
The coop syndrome
A wolf seeks peace and food. The wolf mainly eats ungulates, such as roe deer, wild boar and red deer. A very small part of its diet consists of sheep, but for humans this is the biggest problem.
A wolf kills more sheep than it eats, an average of three to four per attack. A flock of tame sheep continues to stimulate its hunting reflexes, even if a wolf has already killed enough prey. Animal ecologist Hugh Jansman of Wageningen Environmental Research calls this the coop syndrome: “If you keep animals that are relatively defenseless once morest certain predators, you prevent them from fleeing if a predator does appear. Predators have never had to evolve a brake. Very simple, because such situations rarely or never occur in nature. A marten in a chicken coop continues to bite until it is silent. Something like this also happens with a wolf among a group of sheep.”
The number of sheep killed by wolves is increasing significantly. Provincial cooperation organization BIJ12 processes reports per wolf year, which runs from May 1 to April 30 of the following year. In the most recent year, 2022-2023, the total rose to 1,173 sheep. A threefold increase compared to the year before.
Immeasurably small chance
Financially, the sheep farmer does not suffer much damage: he is compensated by the government for every dead sheep. Due to criticism that this compensation was substandard, BIJ12 increased the compensation last August. But a wolf attack is emotionally devastating for a sheep farmer. The Gelderland wolf committee even speaks of a ‘traumatizing’ sight of the wounds of sheep. The wolf seems like a bloodthirsty killing machine that nips around without any purpose. The chicken coop syndrome damages the wolf’s image and increases fear among local residents. If the wolf eats away so easily, how can I be sure that I or my child will not be the next victim?
No matter how deeply felt this fear is, the chance of a wolf snapping at a human is immeasurably small in reality. This was concluded by researchers from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research following listing all known biting incidents between 2002 and 2020. Yet the risk is not entirely absent: there were no fewer than six biting incidents involving humans throughout Europe. The wolf in these issues never did this lightly. In one case the wolf in question was rabid, in another case the wolf was regularly fed by people and in yet another case the wolf was attacked by a farmer. The latter was also the case in Wapse last summer. A hobby farmer tried to defend his sheep with a shovel and pitchfork, but was bitten on the arm.
In order to maintain support for the wolf, Sweden has started shooting wolves since 2015. While Dutch wolves can migrate to Germany and other countries, the Swedish population is isolated. Due to the low migration and the limited number of ancestors, the risk of inbreeding is high. Now that the hunting-oriented country wants to shoot 75 wolves per year, this opportunity only increases. Scientists warn that the population is at risk and Europe has also reprimanded Sweden several times, but the government continues.
Wash nose
Partly because of such examples, the call for a Dutch expansion of the firing options is persistent. However, killing wolves is actually counterproductive. “If you start managing a wolf population, the nuisance will increase instead of decrease,” says wolf ecologist Leo Linnartz of Ark Rewilding. “Generally speaking, it is the males who hunt while the bitch suckles the young. If you shoot the male, you shoot the breadwinner from the family. It works just like with people: if the breadwinner disappears, the young will cooperate. At a young age, wolves are very poor hunters. They really can’t catch a deer, let alone a boar. That is a craft that they have to learn from their parents for a year. If they have to hunt early, they go for the easiest solution: sheep.”
The ambition to make an entire area wolf-free, as cherished by the municipality of Nunspeet, is therefore not going anywhere. “It sounds quite effective. But if the goal is to avoid damage and nuisance, then it is a no-brainer,” says Jansman. “The next wolf is already eager to take that place. As long as the sheep are not sufficiently protected, it will do nothing but solve your problem. At most it gives the residents the idea that something is being done regarding it.”
Prevention
In short, expelling the wolf from an area is virtually impossible and actually promotes the human-wolf conflict. If the goal is to prevent sheep killing by wolves, damage prevention measures are key, not shooting or expulsion. This is what not only ecologists such as Jansman and Linnartz say, but also the Area Committee for the Prevention of Wolf Damage of the Province of Gelderland. Focusing on prevention comes down to using herd protection dogs and installing wolf-resistant fences.
It is not the case that more wolves automatically lead to more attacks on sheep. For example, in the most recent wolf year, only twelve percent of the reports of wolf damage came from the Veluwe area, even though most wolves live here. As many as three quarters of the reports came from Drenthe or Friesland. A big difference, which cannot be separated from the lack of wolf-resistant fences. A 2022 study shows that in Drenthe only sheep farmers had taken a prevention measure on only 6 percent of the plots. On the Veluwe this was 17 percent.
The choice not to install a wolf-resistant fence is partly due to the limited subsidy available. The province of Gelderland is allocating 200,000 euros for it this year, Drenthe 1 million euros. A pittance compared to Germany: €9.5 million was already spent on prevention measures there in 2020. “Germany has had more than 20 years of experience with the wolf. The conclusion is that the recommended anti-wolf measures are very effective. Almost ten times more money is spent on subsidies for preventive measures than on damage compensation,” says Jansma.
Inquiries from BIJ12 show that a wolf mainly kills sheep if they are not sufficiently protected. From the first moment the wolf was in the Netherlands until April 30 of this year, there have been a total of 648 attacks on sheep. In only 9 of these attacks, the wolf encountered a wolf-resistant fence set up in accordance with the regulations and the animal circumvented it. In 98.6 percent of cases, prevention measures were insufficient or absent.
The function of a wolf-resistant fence goes beyond deterring a wolf. The preventive measures can help you talk to the wolf. “Wolves are incredibly intelligent. You have to make it clear to them what is and what is not allowed. That electric fence around plots where livestock are kept, which we want wolves to leave alone, is the means to learn this. You must then ensure that the wild ungulate population is normal. A zero policy for deer and boar in large parts of the Netherlands is not beneficial from that perspective.”
A polarized country
The human-wolf conflicts will decrease with the installation of fences, but it will not completely solve the impasse in the discussion regarding the place of the wolf in the Netherlands. The moment the first wolf crossed the Dutch border, he entered a divided country. The discussion surrounding the wolf in the Netherlands cannot be seen separately from the tension between nature and agriculture, where city and countryside often end up on opposite sides of each other.
Although the strict protected status of the wolf – including the culling restrictions – is the result of thorough scientific research, it also reflects a view of nature in which wild nature and coexistence with wild animals is desirable. This image of nature is more often resonated with the urban population. Sheep farmers and rural residents are concerned regarding the safety of their sheep and attach importance to the cultural landscape determined by agriculture. The wolf seems to be a threat to both and so the question arises: is the predator at home in the Netherlands?
This polarization characterizes the conversation in almost every country the wolf enters. Together with her colleagues, sociologist Hanna Petterson investigated these tensions in Spain. To live better together with the wolf, she recently wrote The Conservationist, people must first come closer to each other. She advocates a pragmatic middle ground in choosing how people and wolves can live together. “That choice depends on what people, livestock and wildlife need in a particular place to live well,” says Petterson. “In other words, context matters.”
Also read:
Wolf gets lost in a forest of rules
Fortunately, he does not notice it himself, but the wolf that probably came from Drenthe to the area near the Groningen Hoogezand-Sappermeer these days has ended up in a forest of regulations.
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