Is there a new pack?

State eases criteria for shooting wolves

There are more and more incidents involving wolves in the province with the largest pack, where no animal has yet been shot. Now the shooting conditions are being lowered.(Bild: Manfred Binder)

Following recent incidents, the wolf ordinance in Lower Austria is to be tightened up next week. This is because no problem animal has yet been shot in the federal state with the most packs in Austria, while this is already the case in four other federal states. 

Carinthia, Tyrol, Salzburg and Upper Austria are one step ahead of Lower Austria, although four of the seven packs known nationwide live here: Problem wolves have already been shot there.

In Lower Austria, the conditions for culling have been met four times so far, but no more. With the rising trend of 15, 39 and 44 livestock kills from 2022 to this year, it is not only these that have increased: "20,000 wolves now live in Europe. They are growing at a rate of 30 percent per year. This is no longer a species threatened with extinction," announced Stephan Pernkopf, Vice-President of the State of Lower Austria, who intends to make it easier to shoot wolves as early as next week.

The subsidies for wolf protection fences have been increased from 50 to 80 percent. Around 100 farmers have taken advantage of this so far. However, many farmers are still unable to do so because the financial outlay or the work involved is far too high.

Landesvize Stephan Pernkopf will die Abschussbedingungen für Wölfe erleichtern.

Bild: Imre Antal

Wolf easier to shoot legally
In Lower Austria, it has not been necessary to obtain an official order beforehand. Rather, it is the behavior of the predator that counts, which can have corresponding consequences, the state emphasizes. This means that conspicuous wolves could already be frightened off or shot without a notice.

In future, it should be sufficient for the four-legged friend to approach the human twice in two weeks during the active period for it to be removed. Previously, this was one week. In addition, in future it should also be possible to target Master Isegrim in neighboring hunting grounds. In addition, the wolf will not be allowed to come closer than 100 meters not only to settlements, but also to individual farmsteads, stables and other buildings. Once this has been reported to the responsible hunter, the wolf can be shot the next time.

New pack in the Amstetten district?
Criticism has long come from Wolfstop chairman Gerhard Fallent. After he had contact with a woman in the Amstetten district who had a wolf howling on her terrace - as reported in the "Krone" - he now refers to a wolf lover who saw a parent animal with young wolves howling at the moon in the same district.

"An inquiry at the Bear Wolf Lynx Center has confirmed that more than one adult wolf has already been DNA-tested in the region and that these are not migratory wolves but resident wolves," Fallent believes in a new pack based in the Amstetten district of Lower Austria.