Wolf allegedly attacked girls near Utrecht

Dutch authorities are warning against visiting a forest area near the city of Utrecht after several suspected incidents involving children. The province of Utrecht is calling on “all visitors to be extremely careful when visiting the Utrechtse Heuvelheuvel area,” the province said in a statement on Wednesday. “It is strongly discouraged to visit these forests with small children.”

In the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, there have already been several ‘disturbing’ incidents involving a wolf, in which a child was also bitten. A spokeswoman for the Utrecht region told AFP that the police have not confirmed that the little girl was bitten by a wolf, but that they are taking the matter ‘very seriously’.

On Wednesday morning, authorities said a “large animal,” believed to be a wolf, knocked over a child near the small village of Austerlitz, about 10 miles east of Utrecht. The child was unharmed.

Ten days ago, a young girl was bitten during a school trip in the area. A DNA test confirmed that the animal was a wolf. In addition, a woman reported in early July that her poodle had been killed by a wolf.

How many wolves live in Germany?

According to the Federal Documentation and Advice Center for Wolves (DBBW), there were 184 wolf packs living in Germany in the observation period 2022/2023. That is 22 more than in the same period last year. In addition, 47 couples (same period last year: 58) and 22 individual animals (same period last year: 25) counted.

The wolf areas in Germany are mainly concentrated in areas in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. However, isolated wolves or packs have also been observed in other federal states over the past twenty years.

Are wolves dangerous to humans?

Wolf attacks on humans are very rare. According to the BMUV, there has not been a documented wolf attack on a human in Germany since the animals returned in the early 2000s. However, there are always reports of encounters or wolves killing livestock such as sheep or goats.

According to a study of wolf dangers by the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (Nina), there are usually three causes of wolf attacks on humans: rabies, provocation and food conditioning. Of these, the latter is a likely cause today. Because wolves, like other wild animals, get used to the presence of humans and sometimes associate this with the availability of food, aggressive behavior can occur when food is not available.

However, it should not be concluded that people should try to keep wolves away from them if they encounter wolves in the wild with food. This would only increase food conditioning, which would minimize the wolves’ instinctive caution toward humans.

RND/sf