Predator on North Sea island
Warning against hysteria after wolf sighting on Norderney
A wildlife camera photographed a wolf in the Südstrandpolder bird sanctuary on Norderney. Photo
© Volker Bartels/dpa
Wolves can cover long distances – that is well known. Now a predator has been spotted in a place where one would not have expected it at first.
After the first sighting of a wolf on an East Frisian Hunters on North Sea island warn against hysteria. “The wolf avoids being close to humans. Don’t panic,” Gernold Lengert, deputy chairman of the hunters’ associations in the East Frisia district, told the German Press Agency on Monday. If you encounter a wolf, “keep your distance and don’t trigger hysteria.”
Lengert said it was also possible that the wolf was no longer on the holiday island and had left it again over the mudflats. “It will be too busy for him on Norderney.” The summer holidays began in Lower Saxony at the weekend – which means that it is high season for tourism on the coast and on the East Frisian Islands.
In recent weeks, a wolf was spotted on Norderney for the first time, as was announced on Friday. A ranger from the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park discovered photos of a wolf on a wildlife camera. The male was photographed on June 6 and 20. Several media outlets initially reported on the situation. According to the National Park Administration, no attacks have been detected so far.
National park experts and hunters assume that the animal came to the island from the mainland across the mudflats at low tide. “It’s no surprise that it wandered over there,” said Lengert. “It follows the fallow deer. The fallow deer also move back and forth between the islands and the mainland.” The fact that wolves could also be spotted on islands is “always within the realm of possibility,” said the national park administration. “It is unlikely that wolves will settle there permanently, as the islands are too small for that.”
According to the hunting community, there is no reason to sound the all-clear. Hunters have long been critical of the spread of wolves in regions as far as the North Sea – not least because they believe that grazing sheep, particularly on dykes, is hardly compatible with wolf protection. “The districts on the coast must be free of wolves,” said Lengert.