Wolves are protected even in towns, top EU court rules
June 11, 2020
Europe's wolf population is slowly recovering with them granted protected status in special habitats. The EU's highest court has ruled that preservation legislation still applies if wolves stray into inhabited areas.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Linke
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The European Union's top court ruled Thursday that wolves are also protected when they stray from protected reserves into areas where humans live.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg was ruling on a case from 2016 in Romania when a wolf strayed into a village between two areas where the animal is protected. The animal was captured before escaping and returning to the nature reserve.
"The strict protection of animal species provided for in the Habitats Directive extends to specimens that leave their natural habitat and stray into human settlements," the ECJ said in a statement.
The Romanian case also raised eyebrows because it was carried out "without prior authorization," leading to a criminal complaint being filed in Romania "in respect of offenses associated with the unsafe capture and relocation of a wolf."
The Romanian court that dealt with the case could not decide if the Habitats Directive also extended to the capture of wild wolves on the outskirts of a town or city or on the territory of a local authority, and referred it up to the ECJ.
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.
The Habitats Directive was first adopted by the EU in 1992 and protects over 200 types of habitat as well as over 1,000 species. It "ensures the conservation of a wide range of rare, threatened or endemic animal and plant species," according to the EU's own definition.
Thursday's ruling focused on the interpretation of the wolves "in their natural range" or "in the wild," as capture in the wild is forbidden under the EU rules.
It decided that a wolf straying "close to or into human settlements, passing through such areas or feeding on resources produced by humans, cannot be regarded as an animal that has left its 'natural range,'" and is therefore still protected.
The wolf population within the European Union remains in the low thousands, with protection measures allowing numbers to slowly increase. Compensation programs exist for loss of livestock.
