Denmark got their first wolf pair in over 200 years last year, but now the female has been poached by a hunter!
If you have been reading my blog for a long time, then you might remember that I posted about how Denmark got its first wild wolf (Canis lupus) pack in 200 years when a female wolf traveled 550km from an area south of Berlin to settle down in Denmark. This was just over one year ago, and conservationists such as myself celebrated the fact that Denmark finally had the chance to see some wolves again! We hoped that this would be the start of a new population in Denmark, but it seems like we celebrated a bit too early.
A wolf. This one is from Norway, so I expect the Danish one to look a lot like it. Image by Mas3cf, posted with the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
In the original post, I predicted that having a wolf pair in Denmark would lead to a lot of political discussions, because for some reason people are afraid of getting attacked by the wolves. While this might be a problem in certain parts of the world, the European wolf pack don’t really attack humans. For example, my own country Norway has been having wolves for the longest time, but the latest wolf attack on humans that ended in a fatality were registered on December 28, 1800! Yes, that is almost 220 years ago.
Anyway, just like I predicted, Denmark has been having lots of debates about whether or not to keep the wolves alive, but due to the nature of their endangerment in this part of the world, they automatically received protection, so it was illegal to hunt them. This means that even while many politicians, farmers and hunters wanted to kill the pair, they could not, to the rejoice of conservationists.
The only female wolf in Denmark was poached by a hunter from a car
Since no one could legally kill the wolves, it seemed like a hunter decided to take actions into his own hands, and on April 16th 2018 he drove his car close to an area where the wolves frequently roamed. What happened is pretty much that he just shot the female wolf from his car window, before driving away.
It probably seemed like a perfect crime to him, but he was in for some bad news, because two wildlife photographers were in the middle of a photo shoot with the wolves! They were obviously sitting pretty far away, but they were lucky enough to randomly film the car as it drove close to the wolf, and managed to capture the entire ordeal on camera!
This YouTube video shows the female being shot by the hunter from the car.
As you can see from the video, the wolf was not acting aggressive or posing a threat to the hunter, which clearly indicates that this was done for the purpose of killing it, not as an act of self-defense.
A 66-year old man was arrested on suspicion for killing the wolf, but he has denied his involvement. The police has seizes his car and the guns found in it, so while he denies it, I would assume that he will get convicted if there turns out to be physical evidence of the crime (such as his gun and the bullet matching).
What does this mean for the wolf population in Denmark?
Denmark only had three wolves; two males and a female, where one of the males had paired up with the female. Since it was the female who was shot, it seems extremely unlikely that Denmark will have a wolf population anytime soon, so I guess the hunter got exactly what he wanted.
Thanks for reading
Thanks for reading my post about how the only female wolf in Denmark in the last 200 years were poached. What do you think of this situation?
I used this article in a Danish newspaper as a source, so it’s a bit difficult to fact-check me unless you know Danish. However, the link I posted to The Guardian should be able to verify what I wrote about this matter.
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This makes me sick. That wolf was doing no harm and nobody’s life was in danger! He should be punished for his actions if he in fact was the shooter. Hopefully another female wolf can come to the country!
I agree. It seems very unlikely that a new female will come to Denmark though, since it has been two centuries since the last time.
Do you think they would introduce one by bringing one from another country?
I still can’t get over how disgusting that is for someone to do that!
I'm not sure to be honest. I am kind of familiar with Denmark, but I've never heard of anything like this in Denmark before, so I really have no idea. First they would have to decide if they even want wolves though, because there is obviously some resistance to that.
I am sad to read your article, in my opinion really cruel perpetrators who shot the wolf and the shooter is not in a state of threat why should have to shoot the wolf, it is different if he is threatened by wolves. and the unfortunate wolf is the only one left in Denmark, so the survival of the wolf's life is extinct and I think the shooter must be punished because the animal also has the right to live in this world
Yes, I agree. The wolf was not aggressive at all, so the hunter just shot it for entirely different reasons. I think the shooter will face some jail time, but we will need to wait for the trial to see.
I can't watch that video. The absolute ignorance and the cruelty of the man is stunning. Denmark can surely find another female wolf, although with the public sentiment against the species, this might not be a good idea. Please update us about the man's conviction (I hope). I believe such a person is dangerous to other animals and to other people. Plus, an example really does have to be set.
I agree. It's very rare that wolves travel all the way to Denmark, so it seems rather unlikely that a female will find its way up there anytime soon, but we can still cross our fingers and hope for the best. I'm not sure if most of the population there are anti-wolves, or if it's just a vocal minority. And I will make a new post once the trial begins so you can see how it ends for the poacher.
Thank you. I'd love to see that.
Great! It might take some months before it begins, so have some patience ;)
WTF i got very angry when i saw that video!! poor wolf :( she wasnt doing nothing!! and now denmark will not have more wolves :(
some people just want to watch the world burn
Yep, she was definitely not doing anything wrong at all. She was not even close to any livestock..
There needs to be a lot more outreach from biologists/ecologists/geographers to farmers in Europe. I am aware that wild carnivores are a danger to livestock, but there are preservative ways of dealing with those. We need our predators back!
I feel like the outreach is very good here in Norway at least, but there's still a huge debate going despite this. It just seems like some farmers don't want to listen to what the biologists have to say, no matter what.
The way the hunter brutally killed the wolf seems hunter was pretty aware that he was killing female wolf to avoid more wolf generation in Denmark. Video reveals a brutal act of hunter which is not justifiable in any way. It only shows the selfishness of hunter for his enjoyment he killed the rare female wolf. So shooter should be deal as per law. and government should made necessary arrangements to import female wolf for the growth of wolf and have better ecosystem.
Yeah, he probably did this to prevent the population from ever rising in Denmark. I think he will have a difficult time getting away from this problem once his trial begins!
A human being was more wild and cruel than the same wolf ... I hope they do condemn it, what injustice!
Hehe, yeah, that's a good point. Most people condemn the poaching, but there are some groups that celebrate it.
This is so aweful!! Knowing people, it was just a matter of time before somebody would take the ‘right’ into his own hand and kill one of them. It is so sad...
Yep, it's definitely awful. It sucks when people take matter into their own hands like this, instead of relying on the society as a whole to determine the best option.
In Canada farmers can shoot wolves in any season. I've only seen wolves once it's rare to see them. They used to attack people thousand years ago but that trait was hunted out of the gene pool.
Oh really? There's a lot more wolves in Canada than in Europe though, so I'm not surprised by that.
Creat laws against amimals and not be able to apply the laws against hunters ... Not only was the female wolf killed, kill hopes of a new population of wolves.
Well, there are laws against the hunters killing the wolves, but it's not like anyone could stop him. But he might go to jail for it, so we will see how it all ends.