Orienteering club may pair children with adults after wolf encounter

Denmark’s Vendelboerne orienteering club is considering requiring children to run with an adult after a recreational runner encountered a wolf that bared its teeth and followed them for several minutes in Bunken Dune Plantation, DR reported.

The club organises races in the plantation several times a year and has members as young as 10 who run alone in the forest.

“After the incident with the wolf, we have to reconsider what we do,” said Kjeld Arildsen, chairman of Vendelboerne. He said the club would discuss the issue with its board and might decide that children must be accompanied by an adult.

The club last held an orienteering race in the plantation south of Skagen in June. None of its members encountered the wolf, Arildsen said.

Unlike the recreational runner, who filmed the wolf while it was with a pup, orienteers do not stay only on paths. Arildsen said this could make a sudden encounter more surprising for the wolf. He also plans to discuss other possible precautions with the Nature Agency.

Warning signs were put up at the nearby First Camp Raabjerg Mile campsite over the weekend, advising campers to stay away from the plantation. The recommendation came from the Agency for Green Land Transition and Aquatic Environment, which said people should avoid the area until the incident had been investigated further.

Receptionist Cirkeline Holmen Jensen said many guests understood that the wolf was protecting its pup and that she had not met anyone who appeared frightened.