For the wolf in the Traunstein region it could soon be tight, very tight even. On Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber (CSU) spoke out clearly in favor of shooting down the predator. Environment Minister Thorsten Glauber (Free Voters) also pleaded for a removal, as the shooting down in bureaucratic German is called, but only if the “legal requirements are met” – as he emphasized.
The reason for the demand is that the wolf apparently has little fear of farms and towns. On the contrary, he has repeatedly killed farm animals in the immediate vicinity of homesteads. He has also been seen repeatedly walking through towns. So far, however, it has apparently never been a danger to people, at least there are no reports of it. However, fear is increasing in the region. The Traunstein District Administrator Siegfried Walch (CSU) made the formal application to the government of Upper Bavaria to kill the wolf at the beginning of November. Should this be approved, it would be a new high point in the dispute over the wolf.
The State Office for the Environment (LfU), which is responsible for the documentation of the wolf incidents in Bavaria, only reported several new attacks by the wolf on farm animals in the Traunstein region on Monday. The series began on Friday when a dead piece of red deer was discovered in a game gate in Inzell. On Saturday the fresh carcasses of two goats were found in a pasture near Unterwössen. On Sunday, a farmer in Markt Schellenberg (Berchtesgadener Land district) came across two dead and two seriously injured sheep in a pasture. According to the LfU, it is not yet certain that it was actually a wolf who attacked the livestock. The results of the genetic tests are only awaited. But the traces on the carcasses and on the pastures make it very likely, according to the authority.
“Any risk posed by the wolf to the population” must be ruled out
In early November, the wolf had killed five sheep near a farm in Bergen. And on Wednesday last week, a young farmer noticed an unrest among the goats in the barn next to his parents’ house at night. When he looked, he surprised the wolf, who had already bitten into a goat. At the sight of the young farmer, the predator fled. It had previously been seen in an industrial park near Bergen. A little later, a driver filmed the wolf as it ran through mountains on the main road. Since then, there has been great excitement in Bergen and far beyond. Especially among the farmers. Agriculture Minister Kaniber therefore visited the region on Monday. In doing so, she stated that “any risk posed by the wolf to the population must be ruled out”.
In the meantime, top people from the Bavarian Farmers’ Association (BBV) have also spoken out. The BBV has been a staunch opponent of the return of the wolves to Bavaria from the very beginning. He is firmly convinced that keeping cattle, sheep and other farm animals on pastures and alpine pastures and the repopulation of the Free State by predators are categorically mutually exclusive. That is why many farmers are demanding wolf-free zones, at least in the Bavarian mountains, in which the predators are shot down as soon as they appear there. Many CSU and Free Voters politicians sympathize with the demand. But it is by no means compatible with the strict protection that wolves are under. Wolves may only be shot in absolute exceptions, for example when the security of the population is threatened. The state government also had to accept that. Therefore, in their wolf action plan of 2018, which regulates the handling of the predator, there is also no mention of wolf-free areas.
After the incidents in Bergen, the BBV demands quick decisions. “The Wolf Action Plan must now be updated immediately,” says BBV Vice Stefan Köhler. “We urgently need the designation of areas that are difficult to protect, concrete measures to deter and clear guidelines for the removal of problem wolves”. The Upper Bavarian farmer president Ralf Huber shares the demands. “Every animal owner in the Traunstein region has concerns and fears that they will find their animals injured or even killed in the morning,” he says. In the meantime, the district government is expected to make a quick decision on the application of the Traunstein District Administrator Walch. It can be doubted that the removal has already been decided – even if it is approved. The Federation of Nature Conservation and other environmental organizations reserve the right to take legal action in this case.