The highest concentration of the protected species can be found in the state surrounding Berlin. But not only are there more wolf packs, the animal is also spreading to new areas in Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/prisma
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The number of wolf packs in Germany has increased to 105, according to official numbers for 2019 released on Monday.
That compares to 77 wolf packs from the previous monitoring study conducted in 2017/18 by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation and a government wolf advising center.
"The wolf population in Germany is increasing. The wolf territories continue to concentrate in the previously known areas stretching from eastern Saxony to the North Sea," said nature conservation agency president Beate Jessel.
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.
In addition to the packs, each containing between three and 11 wolves, monitors identified 25 wolf pairs and 13 lone wolves. The previous study found 40 pairs and three lone wolves.
In the early 2000s, about 150 years after being eradicated from Germany, wolves returned to eastern Germany's Lusatia region, which straddles the states of Brandenburg and Saxony.
They have since spread to several states, including Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Lower Saxony. For the first time since wolves were wiped out, monitors were able to identify lone territorial wolves in the states of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein. Further territorial occurrences could be proven in Thuringia and Bavaria.
Meanwhile, the number of dead wolves found jumped from a year earlier from 61 to 99. More than half of the 83 killed from traffic were puppies. The number of wolves killed illegally was 8.
