The German Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, voted on Thursday to recategorize wolves as a "huntable species" after the return of the predators to the European countryside over the past few years. 

The amendment to the federal hunting act will allow hunters to kill wolves in Germany from July 1 to October 31, though individual state governments will be required to implement their own wildlife management plans and decide for their own region to what extent wolf-hunting will be legal.

In its justification for the amendment, which was debated in parliament, the government said that 4,300 livestock animals were killed or injured in around 1,100 wolf attacks in 2024, and that the costs of protecting herds had run to €23.4 million ($27.2 million).

The amendment to the German law became possible after the protection status of the wolf in the Bern Convention on the conservation of European wildlife was downgraded from "strictly protected" to "protected" in 2025, triggering an EU directive downgrading the protection status. 

Some German farmers have long been calling for more wolf population control. Joachim Rukwied, president of the German Farmers' Association (DBV) told the Münchner Merkur newspaper last year, "We have several thousand wolf attacks on grazing animals every year. That means an agonizing death. If you want to preserve grazing livestock farming, you have to reduce the population."

Wolf-hunting remains controversial

But there have been plenty of protests against the new law, especially in the Black Forest region of southwestern Germany, where wolf populations have not recovered nearly as much as in northern Germany. A report released by the Baden-Württemberg Environment Ministry last December found that the state — Germany's third largest by area — only had four individual wolves.

There are so few wolves in Baden-Württemberg in fact, that locals have named one of them "Grindi" and taken to protesting against a government plan to have him put down as he has been seen approaching hikers. This is highly unusual, as wolves tend to avoid humans.

By comparison, the hunters' association in Lower Saxony, Germany's second largest state by area, counted some 54 wolf packs in early 2025. According to the German Federal Documentation and Consultation Center on Wolves (DBBW), the number of wolf attacks on livestock has steadily increased from barely a hundred animals killed in 2006 to over 5,500 in 2023 — though the number fell again to below 4,500 in 2024.

Has the wolf population really recovered?

Sybille Klenzendorf, program director for wildlife in Europe at the German branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), argues that scientific studies have shown that indiscriminate hunting is not an efficient way to stop livestock being attacked. In fact, it could be counterproductive, because when parents are killed, young wolves left behind often roam around more, looking for easy prey. "Hunting will not solve the livestock damage problem, unless they completely eradicate the wolf again, which they've said they will not do," she told DW.

Despite growing wolf numbers in some areas of Europe, scientists have not yet determined that wolf populations have recovered. "If you look at the available habitat map, there are tons of habitats in southern Germany that are favorable for wolves, where there are no wolves," said Klenzendorf. "Under EU law, you have to look at a population level across borders to determine if the wolf has recovered or not, and that is not happening."

Klenzendorf believes the German government, made up of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), has simply decided to declare the wolf population recovered without even waiting for scientific evidence.

She also pointed out that other European countries like Austria and Switzerland are successfully protecting their livestock using electric fences and dogs. "Or active shepherds, as it has been in the past," she said. "They're bringing that back in Alpine regions, too. So it is doable: Yes, it is more work, and it does cost money, but on the other hand, bringing back wolves saves a lot of money on the side of forest restoration. There's a lot less damage to young trees if there's wolves around because deer and wild boar don't stay in a certain patch if predators are around."

Edited by Rina Goldenberg

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