ANPA sign at the Den Treek estate in Leusden, where a pair of wolves with cubs lives
NOS News•today, 14:30•Adjusted today, 14:58
Wolf experts have withdrawn their advice to shoot the wolf. They say they will instead stick to an earlier proposal to fit the wolf with a transmitter. The province of Utrecht tells NOS that they will not change the existing plans, due to the seriousness of yesterday’s incident.
The province also says it will continue to prepare a permit application for shooting. This does not mean that wolves will actually be shot, but the province wants to be well prepared.
Yesterday, the province of Utrecht called on people not to come to the forests of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug with small children following an incident in which a toddler was pushed over by a large animal.
The province said yesterday to be working on a shooting permitbecause it is assumed that the incident concerns the same wolf that was previously involved in “incidents in Leusden with another girl and a dog”.
Experts now advise the province not to shoot the wolf, although they agree with the call to avoid forests with small children.
Situation different than expected
“The situation of the child who was knocked over is different than we initially thought,” says wolf expert Dick Klees. He is one of the advisors to the province. Klees explains that based on witness information, it was thought that the wolf saw the three-year-old girl as prey. “But from a new conversation with the child’s father last night, the wolf went after the dog. That makes it seem less serious than we thought.”
“That would mean it was a wolf that was interested in dogs,” says Klees. “A dog was also taken in an earlier incident. Because the wolf was targeting the dog, we now also assume that it was a different wolf than first thought.”
The experts are dropping the advice to shoot the wolf based on this new information. “We had a measure to shoot the wolf, because it involved a child twice. And then you shouldn’t take any risks. But now that there is new information, we have different advice.”
Be maximally prepared
The province says it has not yet received the advice of the Mammal Society. As far as the province is concerned, yesterday’s incident is “without a doubt a serious incident”.
“This additional information on the image does not detract from that,” the province writes. “It appears that this is a problem wolf that is displaying problematic behavior, namely by making contact with people, including young children, and dogs in several cases. Due to the seriousness of the situation, we want to be maximally prepared in any case to be able to intervene when necessary.”
According to Klees, it is still important to have a good view of the wolf. “Then transmitters are the only good way,” he says. “For that, he must be tranquilized on occasion. That is a possibility. A permit must be requested for that.”
