Wolfsblut Wolfslandschaft
The wolves are coming…
About 110 years ago, wolves were almost wiped out in Germany. Then, in the late 1990s, the first wolves were sighted in Lusatia. The wolves came from Poland, and their descendants are now moving westward. Currently, wolf density is highest in Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Around 35 packs – a total of 300 wolves – live in Germany’s forests, and it is quite possible that they will have soon spread to all of the country’s federal states.
…and they’re bringing fear.
People’s fear of wolves is no longer the product of childhood fairy tales. It is real. Farmers fear for their grazing animals and hikers worry about their own safety, while hunters would rather not share their targets with another animal.
But wolves aren’t bad…
In our ecosystem, wolves are a piece of the puzzle that has long been missing. For this reason, wolves have been under strict protection for many years. That has given them the opportunity to multiply. However, the population has still not yet reached a stable size. In forests, wolves find plenty of game, usually preferring older and sick animals and thus contributing to a natural balance.
However, the return of the wolf won’t make the forest any more dangerous. Wolves are considered shy and curious, but not vicious. In fact, there have still been no reports in Germany of a wolf approaching a person aggressively. In order to keep it that way, it is important that people lose their excessive fear of wolves and that wolves remain too timid to approach people.
In order to increase the acceptance among livestock owners of the return of wolves, WOLFSBLUT supports herding dogs by donating food. Livestock owners who use dogs to protect their herds have considerable costs, for example for dog food, which are not subsidised by the state.
…which is why we want to reduce fears.
BEAa (a German abbreviation which stands for ‘observing, developing empathy and in turn reducing fears’) is the name of the psychological concept behind our commitment to the WOLFSBLUT Wolfslandschaft. At the Hunsrück-Hochwald National Park, we were the main sponsor of a project to fence off approximately 1 hectare of land, which includes a patch of forest with mature trees, a hilly retreat, a cave and a watering hole.
The WOLFSBLUT Wolfslandschaft gives all visitors the opportunity to get up close to the wolves. In conjunction with educational events for adults and school pupils, BEAa is contributing to the peaceful coexistence of wolves and humans.
WOLFSBLUT’s Wolfslandschaft can be found at:
Wildfreigehege Wildenburg
Wildenburger Str. 22
55758 Kempfeld
The WOLFSBLUT team on the ground
Supervised by veterinarian Christiane Herfurth, a WOLFSBLUT team will also be conducting a long-term study on wolves’ feeding and social habits at WOLFSBLUT’s Wolfslandschaft. We hope to gain new insights that will allow us, among other things, to further improve our varieties of dog food.