Cattle had escaped

Ox startled by wolf injured farmer

A wolf may have scared off a farmer's cattle(Bild: Scharinger Daniel)

Parts of a herd of cattle in the upper Mühlviertel region fled from a wolf into the forest on Friday night. The farmer wanted to catch sight of the guilty wolf in the woods. Then a frightened ox also attacked the farmer, who suffered injuries as a result.

In the early hours of Friday morning, a 44-year-old farmer in the municipality of Ulrichsberg in the upper Mühlviertel had already been torn from his sleep several times: His cattle were in an uproar, screaming unusually loudly in the still morning air. When the farmer finally left the house with a trainee at around five in the morning, he discovered that his animals were not only upset, but also scattered - some were outside the fence and in the nearby forest.

Wolf seen in the forest
The 44-year-old's suspicions as to who the culprit might be were soon confirmed: as the farmer was looking for his cattle in the forest, he spotted a wolf, as he told ORF.

Struck several times
But that was not all: a restless ox had knocked the Ulrichsberger to the ground when it was caught and hit him several times with its head. He injured his shoulder and chest in the process. The farmer then went to the hospital in Rohrbach on his own. There it was confirmed that the injuries were only painful but harmless bruises. The remaining cattle appeared in a clearing and two fire departments helped to drive them back to the 44-year-old's pasture.

Incidents are becoming more frequent
In the past few weeks, there have been repeated incidents involving young wolves, which roam around this time of year in search of a territory - and not only in the more remote parts of the Mühlviertel, but also in St. Georgen an der Gusen or near the Feldkirchen bathing lakes, directly on the Danube.