DR finds wolf bite incidents in at least nine EU countries

At least nine European Union countries have recorded incidents in which wolves bit or otherwise injured people since 2000, according to a review by DR Verifies of the sources behind a widely circulated list of alleged wolf attacks.

The incidents occurred in Finland, Croatia, Romania, Poland, Estonia, the Netherlands, Greece, Germany and Italy. DR Verifies said the circumstances varied greatly and that it could not rule out a higher number of countries.

The review used the term “wolf incidents” because some cases involved a wolf attacking with full force, while in others the animal did not initially attack the person. Some incidents on the list could not be verified with complete certainty, either because it had not been established that the animal was a wolf or because authorities had not described the event as a wolf incident.

Incidents since 2000

On December 12, 2009, a man in Finland was injured when a wolf attacked him while he was repairing machinery in a forest, according to police.

Ten days later, several wolves attacked a herd of cattle in Croatia. One of the wolves then injured the herder as he tried to defend the cattle by hitting the animals with a stick.

In Romania, a woman was bitten by a wolf near her property on January 10, 2014. The wolf was later found to have rabies.

In June 2018, two children were bitten by a wolf in Poland in two incidents occurring within a short period. The same wolf had reportedly bitten a tourist two weeks earlier.

On July 24, 2019, a woman in Estonia was bitten after a wolf followed her dog and bit her near her home as she let the dog inside.

In the Netherlands, a wolf killed a farmer’s sheep on July 9, 2023. When the farmer tried to drive the wolf away with a pitchfork, the animal bit him in the arm.

In the Dutch province of Utrecht, a particular wolf was involved in several incidents between July 2024 and July 2025. It bit a child twice, tried to pull a child into a forest and bit an adult woman.

In April 2025, a female runner was bitten by a wolf near a national park in the Dutch province of Gelderland.

On September 16, 2025, a five-year-old girl was bitten and scratched by a wolf near a beach resort in Greece. Her mother and other people frightened the wolf away.

On March 30, 2026, a wolf wandered onto a shopping street in Hamburg. Several media outlets initially described the incident as an attack, but experts consulted by DR Verifies said it was not. According to them, a woman was trying to help the wolf out of a shop when its teeth struck her as it moved its head. DR Verifies included the case because of the attention it received.

The latest example took place during the weekend of August 15, when a wolf bit a six-year-old boy in a park in Noicattaro, south of Bari, Italy. According to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the same wolf bit two girls on August 4, one of whom was taken to hospital with bite injuries. Italian authorities initially believed the animal was a dog but later confirmed that it was a wolf.

Experts point to delayed responses

In modern times, Europe has recorded only one wolf attack on a person with a fatal outcome. It took place in Spain in 1974 and has been cited by, among others, the Danish Animal Ethics Council and the Danish Society for Nature Conservation.

DR Verifies consulted Peter Sunde, a professor at Aarhus University’s Department of Ecoscience and a wolf expert, and Hans Peter Hansen, an independent consultant and former senior researcher in democracy and nature management at Aarhus University.

They pointed to several general factors in countries where wolf incidents have occurred, including the Netherlands and countries in southern Europe. In many places, wolves are living closer to people than previously and are becoming accustomed to human presence. The experts also said authorities in several cases had been too slow to respond to potential risks and take the necessary action.