That was quite astonishing to OÖN reader Anna G. on Wednesday afternoon when she was on the main road from Sarleinsbach made an unusual sighting after chickens screeched: At the end of a row of silo bales, a wolf-like animal jumps right in front of her car and crosses the road. The animal cannot be stopped by oncoming traffic either. The filmmaker of the scene comments with a long drawn-out “Oidaaa”, before the presumed wolf disappears in the direction of the forest:
The video has been circulating on WhatsApp in the past few days, and the author has now reported to the OÖ Nachrichten. She took the pictures on Wednesday around 4 p.m. with her mobile phone, she said and sent OÖN a second video showing the animal stopping briefly and then fleeing:
The OÖN wanted to know from District Hunter Martin Eisschiel whether the filmed animal is actually a wolf. He said that it was difficult to tell just by watching the video and that he wanted to wait for the experts’ judgment before commenting on the scene.
It is not the first “wolf sighting” these days in the region: In Neustift im Mühlkreis, a newspaper delivery woman sighted a wolf-like animal on Monday a week ago at around 4:45 a.m. at the mouth of the Ranna in the Danube. About two hours later it is said to have appeared again at Rannariedl Castle.
Multiple sightings
The animal had already been observed in Niederkappel the previous weekend. Under a photo on social media, it was debated whether it was a wolf or a dog. Wolfgang Sollberger, wolf officer for the Mühlviertel, gave the all-clear: he and his colleagues agreed that the animal was not a wolf, but probably a wolfhound. These were mainly bred in the Czech Republic at the time of the Iron Curtain. Especially the broad head and the shape of the ears would speak clearly against a wolf. In the case of the animal in Neustift, the “friendly” facial expression also indicates a wolfhound. It is still unclear whether the animal sighted near the salt bridge is the same.
Source: Nachrichten
