Species protection: Tyrol wants even stronger hunt for the wolf

The hunting for the wolf, which has recently become easier, is to be expanded according to the will of the Austrian state of Tyrol. The goal must be to hunting the predator regularly with annual launch rates, Tirol’s Prime Minister Anton Mattle (ÖVP) now affirmed. First of all, it was important to exhaust the new legal scope when dealing with risk and malicious wolves to protect the 2,000 alpine pastures.

Austria’s Minister of Agriculture Norbert Tettschnig (ÖVP) sees the EU on course after a long struggle. “It’s not just about mountain farmers whose sheep are torn.” The wolf recently also entered settlement areas and playgrounds. “Now the focus is finally on the reality of the people,” said Tettschnig to the German Press Agency.

For two years, various federal states in Austria have leaned far out of the window due to shooting permits. In the spring, the EU then decided in the sense of the Alpine Republic to reduce the protection status of the wolf from “strictly protected” to “protected”.

Damage by wolves recently declined

According to the Bär, Luchs protection center, Wolf stripes around 100 wolves through Austria. Most of them in Carinthia and Tyrol, but also Salzburg and Vorarlberg are affected, says Albin Blaschka from the protection center. Eight animals were only recorded ten years ago.

In the end, the number of wolves no longer increased. The damage caused by the predators has decreased significantly. In 2022, around 2,000 sheep, goats and cattle were killed, injured or missing in Austria. In the past year, around 900 farm animals were victims of the wolf, it said.

One could not say which of the measures, according to the protection center. In addition to the hunting pressure – according to statistics, around 35 wolves have been shot in Austria since 2023 – the more prudent behavior of farmers also plays a role that their animals protected better or got it from the Alm faster, says Blaschka. “A lot happened there.”

German minister: Wolf is no longer an endangered way

In Austria, the pressure from farmers and the tourism industry is great to do something against the wolves. The alpine pasture with cows, sheep and goats is economically important and also has a high tourist value.

In Germany, Agriculture Minister Alois Rainer (CSU) assumes around 2,500 wolves. These are more wolves related to the area than in Russia. “So for me the existence of the wolf in Germany is definitely not at risk,” he said recently.

For the hunters in Austria, a shooting permit often means immediate action. “Otherwise the wolf is over all mountains,” says Tirol’s state hunter Anton Larcher. It is easier to succumb to a shadow wolf at least at short notice – a copy that has torn farm animals – as a problem wolf, i.e. an animal that has lost the fear of humans.

Jäger: Wolf overestimated as an important link in the natural cycle

“The likelihood that it is the animal you are looking for is very high,” says Larcher. Most wolves in Austria are loners and did not live in one of the currently nine packs.

Animal welfare organizations such as the WWF see the wolf as a natural health police, which mainly tears sick and weak shell game. The importance of the predator as a regulating element in the cycle of nature is clearly overestimated, says Larcher. In Tyrol alone, tens of thousands of deer, chamois or deer were shot, the wolf games to control the shell game stocks at all. “As a regulator, it is absolutely unsuitable,” says Larcher.