Wolves carried out almost 500 attacks on livestock across Germany in 2017, according to fresh data. Some are calling for the predators to have their protection status lowered.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K.D. Gabbert
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The number of wolf attacks on livestock in Germany is growing, with more than 1,667 sheep and other farm animals killed, injured or going missing in 2017.
Germany's federal documentation center, DBBW,said attacks on livestock by wolves increased by some 66 percent in 2017 compared with the year before, with 472 cases registered.
Most of the farm animals killed were sheep, which are a favorite prey of wolves when the opportunity presents itself.
The report concludes that the only way to alleviate the problem was "to comprehensively protect sheep and goats in areas where wolves live."
The way farm animals are kept "must be adapted to cope with the renewed presence of wolves," the report said. "In areas where the wolf has survived down to the present day, herds are watched over by shepherds and dogs as they always have been, and are kept in pens overnight."
It said that most attacks occurred where wolves were looking for new territory and farmers had not yet put in place appropriate protective measures.
German Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner told daily Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, which had first published the figures, that she was in favor of "a moderate regulation of [wolf] numbers" by allowing some animals to be shot. Her remarks echo a paper passed by the conservative CDU and CSU parliamentary parties in November that called for the protection status of wolves to be lowered so as to permit them to be hunted when numbers exceeded certain limits.
Under current German law, individual animals may be shot only if they display behavioral problems.
However, the documentation center's report said shooting wolves would provide only a short-term solution in emergency situations.
Wolves were hunted to extinction in Germany some 150 years ago, but have been reintroduced to several areas in recent years. Most live in the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony.
According to the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), there were 73 wolf packs, 30 pairs of wolves and several individual animals living in Germany in 2017/2018. That is an increase of 13 in the number of packs and nine in the number of pairs compared with the previous documentary period.
The wolf in myths and fairy tales
In mythology and fairy tales, wolves are usually depicted as the bad guys: mean, crafty and out to kill. An exhibition at the Cologne Wallraf Richartz Museum presents the wolf in art.
Image: Burg Wissem, Bilderbuchmuseum der Stadt Troisdorf
Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?
Wolves have returned to Germany. And they polarize society: Some people would rather shoot them, others want to keep them safe at any cost. How we see wolves is influenced by literature and art — where the "big bad wolf" has frightened people for many centuries.
The wolf in the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood" outsmarts the red hooded girl on her way to visit her sick grandma. The animal sends her to pick flowers so it can run ahead, devour the grandmother and lie in wait for the unsuspecting girl in the woman's bed. When the child finally reaches grandma's house, she is surprised by the old lady's looks, but doesn't make the obvious connection.
Grandma might seem odd to the girl, but she doesn't have much time to think about it, because the wolf devours her, too. Luckily, a hunter is nearby. He cuts open the sleeping wolf's belly, and both grandma and the little girl jump out, safe and sound. The wolf is stuffed with heavy stones, wakes up, collapses and dies.
Image: Burg Wissem, Bilderbuchmuseum der Stadt Troisdorf
The wolf always dies in the end
Johann Wolfgang Goethe's epic poem "Reynard the Fox" also ends with the wolf's death. The tale goes back to a medieval fable. Reynard the fox manages to defeat all of his animal foes, even the wolf Isegrim, who is actually stronger. As a result, the clever fox is appointed chancellor of the animal kingdom by the lion king.
Ovid's poem "Metamorphoses" inspired numerous artists. The above 1589 copperplate engraving "Zeus Turning Lycaon into a Wolf" is from the workshop of Hendrick Goltzius. In Greek mythology, Lycaon drew Zeus' ire because he served him human flesh to test him. Zeus, king of the gods, turned him into a wolf in return, arguing that the transformation would allow Lycaon to indulge in his lust to kill.
"The Wolf Hunt" by Willem van der Leeuw is another example of a popular copperplate engraving, a copy of a painting by Peter Paul Rubens, the Flemish painter who masterfully depicted motion in his works. In the Baroque era, such reproductions sold well and were made in large numbers. They also served as a form of advertisement for the artist and his workshop.
The exhibition displays more than 30 artworks showing wolves. The images from 16th through the 19th centuries generally portray wolves as aggressive and out for blood, establishing the grim image we still have of wolves today. That fear is unfounded, as wolves are hardly dangerous to people. There hasn't been a single attack on humans in the almost 20 years since wolves resettled in Germany.
Rome's foundation myth includes not a big bad wolf, but a good-natured one — the she-wolf that rescued and nursed the abandoned twins Romulus and Remus. In another version of the story, the term "lupa," or wolf, does not refer to a she-wolf at all: it's rather the slang word for prostitute.
