Experts answer questions about wolves in Denmark

DR asked three leading Danish wolf experts to answer questions from viewers and readers about the species. Readers submitted more than 500 questions, and DR has collected 10 of the central answers.

Peter Sunde researches fauna ecology and advises on species whose numbers or behaviour create conflicts with people. He has worked with wolves since the species returned to Denmark in 2012.

Kent Olsen is scientific director and senior researcher at the Natural History Museum Aarhus. He leads and coordinates Denmark’s national monitoring of wolves.

Hans Peter Hansen has studied the consequences of wolves for people living in areas where the animals settle since 2009, first in Sweden and later in Denmark as wolves returned to the country.

Have wolves ever attacked people in Denmark?

There were probably attacks on people in Denmark several hundred years ago, but none in recent times, according to Hans Peter Hansen.

Outside Denmark, wolves have attacked people in recent years. Europe is home to more than 25,000 wolves, and there are examples of wolves losing their natural wariness and attacking people, including in the Netherlands and Italy.

In most cases, Hansen said, authorities acted too slowly and too late on the warnings they had received.

How far can wolves travel in a day?

Wolves travel an average of nearly 25 kilometres a day, according to Kent Olsen. This applies both to lone roaming wolves and to wolves that remain within established territories.

After bringing down prey and eating a large meal, wolves move very little during the following day. As a result, there are also days when they travel very long distances. In extreme cases, wolves have covered more than 90 kilometres in one day.

Why should Denmark have wolves?

Whether Denmark should protect or eradicate particular species is fundamentally a political question, Peter Sunde said.

Wild boar, for example, have been eradicated in Denmark because Danish politicians decided to do so. In the case of wolves, however, the legislation and policy are determined by the European Union because wolves are on the EU’s list of protected species.

Denmark therefore cannot decide to eradicate wolves unless the European Parliament decides that responsibility for protecting the species should be returned to the member states.

How many wolves can Denmark accommodate?

Sweden, which is 10 times larger than Denmark, considers a robust population that does not cause problems through confrontations with people to be 170 to 220 wolves, according to the question submitted to the experts.

The number of wolves is at least as controversial an issue in Sweden as it is in Denmark, Hans Peter Hansen said. Around 2009, the Swedish government decided that approximately 200 wolves were sufficient. The European Commission disagreed, and Sweden was forced to raise the limit to about 400.

The government has since tried to lower the limit again. Whether it will be allowed to do so depends on whether the population has what is known as favourable conservation status.

Why do wolves lose their natural wariness?

Wolves lose their natural wariness only when they become accustomed to people. This typically happens when they are fed and learn to associate people with easy access to food, Kent Olsen said.

It can also happen when wolves have been kept in captivity and are later released into the wild.

Wolf pups are naturally wary and will remain so as long as people do not start feeding them.

Why do wolves kill more prey than they eat?

Wolves, like other predators, are naturally inclined to attack any prey animal standing in front of them, Peter Sunde said. They lack a mechanism that makes them stop after bringing down the first animal.

In nature, other nearby prey animals would flee, so the wolf would normally kill only one animal. When wolves attack sheep in an enclosure, however, the sheep cannot run very far and do not flee in all directions as wild sheep would. They have been bred to gather together when they see a sheepdog.

The result is natural behaviour in a biologically unnatural situation, leading to the killing of several animals. The same phenomenon is known from other predators, such as when a fox or marten gets into a henhouse.