The EU’s efforts over the past 30 years to protect wolves are under threat, as increased hunting, manipulated numbers and a Commission that seems to take its conservation pledge lightly are having a serious impact on the species.

Wolves, which were on the brink of extinction before the EU pushed for their protection in the 1990s, are once again under threat as the population has since recovered and is – allegedly – a nuisance to farmers.

Across Europe, hunters are killing wolves in high numbers but for many, it seems to be more about the thrill than the protection of livestock they say they are doing it for.

And it is going to be easier: the European Commission recently pushed for the protection of wolves to be lowered in the international Bern Convention – a necessary first step towards changing the rules at the EU level.

While this does not “change the legal obligation on member states to protect the species and preserve its populations,” as the EU’s environment chief said earlier this month, the reality is howling a different tune.

With hunters in some countries branding young wolves as ‘trophies’, authorities in others turning a blind eye to illegal hunting, and a Commission basing its conservation efforts on questionable data, it looks more like years of successful conservation efforts are now under threat.

Hunting the young for trophies

In the Baltics, 800 wolves are expected to be killed as hunters will be allowed to cull 341 wolves in Lithuania, 300 in Latvia and 134 in Estonia during this hunting season, with some expected to be pups – quite the spike compared to the last 2023-2024 hunting season, where hunters could kill 281 in Lithuania, 149 in Estonia and 300 in Latvia. 

Latvia, for instance, harvests “about 50–60%” of the wolf population annually, according to the government’s wolf action plan, which also states that hunters like to display pelts and skulls as “rare trophies“, including pups and pregnant females – typically those who do not carry out the hunting.

“Wolf pups start to accompany their parents on the hunt in December. Until December, 200-250 wolves had been killed in Latvia for the last six years,” Mareks Vilkins from the NGO Latvian Wolves and Lynxes told Euractiv. “So, there’s not many wolves left alive to properly learn hunting skills,” Vilkins added.

If experienced wolf hunters in the pack are killed, younger ones will only have more tendency to attack easy prey, such as sheep and cattle.

In terms of sheep depredation – which affects 0.06% of the EU’s total flock annually according to the Commission’s 2023 report that also admits that hunting does not substantially lower depredation levels – this is also problematic.

“All this killing will only increase the sheep depredation because young wolves will not have the skill to hunt” and that “will be used by hunter lobby and the [State Forest Service] to justify the increase of wolf quota,” Vilkins added.

While the Environment Ministry is the one responsible for strictly protected species, it is the State Forest Service that decides on wolf hunting quotas “in the interests of the hunter’s lobby, which sees wolves and lynx as pests and vermin,” Vilkins said.

According to him, the average age of hunters in the Baltic States is 50-60 years, meaning “they were born in the Soviet Union and have a very hostile attitude towards wolves”.

Questionable fact-checking among ‘lazy’ EU bureaucrats
Under EU rules, hunts – even if authorised – should not threaten the favourable conservation status of wolves, but the conservation figures countries send to the Commission may not reflect reality.

“Latvia’s bureaucrats are aware of Favourable Reference Values (FRV) and thus will submit numbers which significantly exceed the FRV to pacify lazy European Commission bureaucrats,” Vilkins told Euractiv.

Hunting cannot take place if the number of animals is below the country’s FRV, according to an EU court ruling.

According to Vilkins, reports are made when the litter is born, but the numbers are slashed later when the hunts start, with more wolves killed as a result.

A government audit in Latvia found that the State Forestry Service may be reporting wolf population estimates that are far higher than the real numbers, that its data is ‘questionable’ and neither traceable nor verifiable.

There is “a high probability that the size of the population determined by the Service differs from the actual situation in nature more and more,” the report adds.

The Service also then calculates harvest quotas based on the same unreliable data.

Even though the status of wolves was changed as a result of a Commission push, the executive “has no competence to monitor on the ground species or habitat types covered by the Habitats Directive” a spokesperson told Euractiv.

Illegal hunts in France, Germany, and Sweden 
In France, the “government has always allowed wolf killings to happen,” Rodolphe Gaziello, president of the NGO Le Klan du Loup told Euractiv, adding that the country “has never respected the Bern Convention.”

Even if there is no wolf attack, France has allowed the shooting of 192 wolves – or about 20% of the wolf population – this year, reports Le Monde.

While authorities provide shepherds with “electric fences and dogs” as protective measures, the “shoot to kill” approach is preferred for “political reasons”, Gaziello said.

Under the Habitats Directive, hunting is only allowed when there is no satisfactory alternative, among other conditions. “The government offers protection measures that are not used” added Gaziello.

France’s new wolf management plan also makes it easier to shoot wolves.

“Coexistence with wildlife is severely impeded when institutional approaches do not acknowledge or anticipate risk, instead maintaining a state of urgency,” Fiona Hurrey from the UN’s Environment Programme wrote about the conclusions of her master thesis.

Her research explored “political and societal tensions that were seemingly disproportionate to the level of impact that the species has on the agriculture sector” and on “human safety” she added.

In Germany, there are several cases where protection measures “are not seen as ‘reasonable’ for livestock farmers in certain areas (e.g. alpine regions, coastal areas with dams) or for more defensive animals such as cattle or large horses,” James Brückner, head of the wildlife department at the German Animal Welfare Association, told Euractiv.

This means “exemptions to remove a wolf are more easily granted in case attacks happen.” Brückner added. When attacks take place, the wrong wolf is usually killed.

Since 2010, 95 wolves have been found dead for illegal hunting, and almost 900 have died in recorded traffic accidents.

“The dark number [illegal killings] is much higher” an anonymous German hunter told Euractiv. He estimates illegal killings to be up to 100 wolves per year.

Sweden has also had its fair share of illegal hunting, prompting the Commission to open an infringement procedure in 2015 – though it hasn’t actively pursued the case since.

Regarding the number of wolves that must remain alive for a country to have a good conservation status, Sweden intends to reduce its number from 375 to 170 – a decision the Commission can still challenge.

But the government has already ordered preparations for future hunts of up to 170 wolves, Magnus Orrebrant, chairman of the Swedish Carnivore Association, told Euractiv.

Empty promises
These examples and the lack of reaction from Brussels, make the EU’s promise to preserve the wolf species in Europe a potentially empty one.

In Spain, the parliament just voted to lift a ban on wolf hunting set in 2021, Reuters reported.

In Germany, too, conservation is increasingly seeming like an afterthought.

“With the lowering of the protection status, it is very likely that Germany will start reducing wolf numbers as several politicians and federal states have called for this for some time, especially Conservatives and the right-wing AfD,” said Brückner, pointing to a shift as even Green Environment Minister Steffi Lemke backed the move.

Some federal states are already including wolves in their hunting legislation, and hunters are officially responsible for monitoring the wolf populations in states like Lower Saxony, Brückner added.

“All experts agree that hunting wolves won’t decrease the number of attacks on livestock, especially if there are no livestock protection measures in place,” Brückner said.

“So if wolves will be culled in the future, this will be a political manoeuvre in Germany just as it was at the EU level,” he added.

[DE]