The Traunstein District Administrator Siegfried Walch (CSU) has applied to the government of Upper Bavaria for permission to shoot wolves. The occasion is an incident in the municipality of Bergen at the end of October. There, one of the animals, which is strictly protected at European level, had killed at least five sheep, as genetic analyzes by the State Office for the Environment have now confirmed. In addition, the recordings of a surveillance camera in Brannenburg in the Rosenheim district showed how a wolf prowled through a homestead at night.
“The last wolf incident has already occurred in settlement structures. That means the wolf appears ever closer to the inhabited area,” said Walch, who submitted the application for shooting as chairman of the Association of Foresters in Chiemgau and, according to his own statements, from the Stock Holder Association Traunstein and the Bavarian Farmers’ Association is supported. The alpine farming is “a very important pillar” in Chiemgau and plays “a very special role for the ecological balance, also with regard to species diversity, biodiversity and insects”. A coexistence of alpine farming and wolf is “not feasible from our point of view” because large areas in the mountainous south of the district cannot be protected in a meaningful way, argues Walch. “Therefore, from our point of view, a removal is the necessary step.” In addition to mountains, confirmed wolf cracks were also recently reported from the Berchtesgadener Land and the Rhön-Grabfeld district in Lower Franconia.