In the Austrian state of Tyrol, a regulation came into force on April 1st that makes it easier to shoot strictly protected wolves. Accordingly, the predators can be hunted when grazing animals are attacked or at least five sheep or goats are killed in an attack. The shooting license is then valid for a maximum of eight weeks within a radius of ten kilometers. In the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, too, facilitation of firing is demanded; the municipality of Kochel am See also supports this and calls for the lowering of the strict protection status for wolves. On the other hand, Friedl Krönauer, chairman of the Bund Naturschutz im Landkreis, speaks out vehemently against a relaxation of European nature conservation law and senses electoral maneuvers in the advances.
SZ: There are currently a good 2,500 wolves nationwide, in 2020 4,000 farm animals were torn by the predators. In Bavaria, the number of wolf territories has risen to ten with the addition of the “Staffelsee-West” area in March. According to the Bavarian Nature Conservation Union, “a further spread of the wolf in Bavaria is to be expected”. Can you understand the concerns of livestock farmers?
Krönauer: For ten, 15 years we have had migrants in our district who we don’t even notice. I can understand how bad it is for cattle farmers when a wolf kills their sheep or goats. Even if the proportion of domestic animals in the prey of wolves is negligible. Of course, that doesn’t help the sheep farmers, I don’t want to downplay it at all. Sheep farming is a topic, especially in the Garmisch area. One will have to think about raising the animals to the alpine pastures, where they are more or less left to themselves over the summer. We may get into a situation where grazing animals in the current form is no longer possible. But simply saying, now the wolf is coming, let’s shoot it down, is not a solution. We can’t give a damn about species protection and make the world the way we like it. According to the Bern Convention and the Habitats Directive, the wolf is under strict protection throughout Europe. And that’s good. It must be possible for large predators to resettle here. We have to react to this and protect the herds, for example with protective fences.
Livestock farmers argue that cattle protection fences cannot be erected on steep slopes, at least not with “reasonable” effort.
I know that fences in mountain regions are difficult. But where possible, they should be made. In addition to protective fences, there is also the option of using livestock guard dogs.
The BN district chairman Friedl Krönauer does not believe in the demands from Kochel to downgrade the protection status of the wolf.
(Photo: Harry Wolfsbauer)
There are also objections to this: Alpine farmers claim that these herding dogs could also attack hikers or mountain bikers.
You’re talking past the truth. Herd protection dogs are not fighting dogs. They are tested and trained to keep the herds together and protect them from wolves. Livestock guardian dogs have been used for centuries. People don’t attack them, unless hikers have their own dog with them. I have seen livestock guardian dogs in Abruzzo. Outside of their working hours, they lie peacefully in the sun and let themselves be petted. A mountain rescue comrade from Romania, which has the largest population in Europe with around 3,000 wolves, recently said to me: “I don’t understand your excitement.” In Romania there are wolves and bears and a good relationship with the people. With us it’s always just that it doesn’t work and that doesn’t work. My impression is that the wolf has to be used as an election campaign topic at the moment. Free voters and the CSU have their clientele among the farmers.
But a relaxed shooting ordinance has also recently come into force in Tyrol. You can’t justify that with the state elections in Bavaria.
Anyway, I don’t agree with the howling. I can’t go along with the demands of the Garmisch district administrator Anton Speer and the mayor of Kochl, Thomas Holz, to relax the protection status because of the increasing population. I believe that there is a willingness in society to accept the wolf.
Hikers or mountain bikers who are out and about in the mountains need not be afraid?
I find it almost infamous to stir up fears. Because there have been no deadly wolf attacks in Germany in the last 70 years. Between 1950 and 2000, 59 incidents involving wolves were documented in Europe, and rabies was a reason for the attack in 38 cases. For me, the alleged closure of a forest kindergarten borders on populism. You have to acknowledge the facts and inform people accordingly. Wolves avoid humans. As a hiker, if you’re lucky enough to see a wolf, it’s like winning the lottery. The wolf sees humans, as an upright species, as a threat that it avoids. In addition, humans do not belong in its prey spectrum. Wolves eat roe deer, red deer and wild boar, rabbits and also beavers. They stay where the food supply is good. You should never lure wolves with food.
Sheep and goat farmers do this – unintentionally, of course
Yes, but there are protective fences or guard dogs for that. In the case of “harmful wolves” who do not behave in a species-appropriate manner, who roam through towns, for example, as was the case in the Traunstein district in December 2021, or in the case of “feed-conditioned animals”, there is already the possibility of obtaining a shooting permit from the government of Upper Bavaria to obtain. It will be the case that one or the other wolf will have to be shot down, and we at the BN see it that way too. We’re not romantics. But if you take the wolf out of the European species protection law, then you open a door that you can no longer close.
Preservation of pastoralism despite wolves
The Bavarian Minister for the Environment, Thorsten Glauber (FW), calls for “extended legal instruments for wolf management” from the federal government. In a press release, he reported that he had approached the federal government with a request to that effect. “We finally need the announced legal changes.” The preservation of pastoralism is a central concern of the state government. The clear goal is to “maintain the grazing animal husbandry, which is so important for biodiversity, across the board and permanently, even when there are wolves in Bavaria,” says Glauber.
According to the statement, the federal government can no longer ignore the fact that livestock protection measures are often difficult or impossible to implement in steep and heavily frequented alpine areas. What is needed is a “regionally differentiated portfolio management”, which is also provided for in the coalition agreement. In the years 2020 to 2022, the Free State of Bavaria spent more than ten million euros on promoting livestock protection measures to support grazing livestock farmers when there were wolves. On the approximately 1,400 mountain pastures in the Bavarian Alps, wolf-repellent fences or livestock protection dogs are often difficult.