How Germany's wolves made their way home

It's 2009 and I'm sitting in a hide on a military training ground in Saxony, close to the Polish border, overlooking a wide, open sandy area. It acts as a firebreak between where I am and the dark forest beyond. The croaking of a raven echoes through the quiet air and a light wind rushes through the leaves.

There are no animals to be seen, yet the sandy ground is pitted with the tracks of roe and red deer, wild boar, foxes – and wolves. It may not be total wilderness, yet I am still in the heart of Germany’s wolf country.

I wait for some time, unmoving in the hide, and then suddenly it happens – the moment I’ve been waiting for. A wolf steps out of the trees and into the open, pausing to catch the scent of other forest-dwellers drifting on the breeze.

It’s my first encounter with a wild wolf in Germany and I can hardly believe my eyes. The wolf continues to sniff the air and draws closer and closer. Then it seems the wind carries my scent to him. After a brief moment of orientation, he immediately changes pace and direction, sprinting back into the dense forest. Apparently he is not keen on humans.

Once widespread in central Europe, wolves had almost been hunted to extinction by the 19th century, regarded as a danger to livestock, competitors for game and a threat to people, in whom fear of this species has long run deep. But 20 or so years ago, these predators started to come back – not through reintroduction but by naturally migrating west from Poland. In the years since, they have managed to not only reestablish themselves in Germany, but to steadily strengthen their hold, increasing their population by about 25 per cent annually.

I have enjoyed many more magical encounters with wolves since that memorable day 13 years ago, but it’s still difficult to learn about their behaviour. Most are very similar to that first individual I saw – nervous, edgy, retreating as soon as they sense the presence of humans – and many aspects of their biology remain poorly understood as a result.

Thankfully, by carrying out intensive wolf monitoring in Germany, researchers are trying to change this. The number of offspring, fatalities, kinship of packs and the way young wolves are dispersing are all now being studied to assess the health and social dynamics of the resurgent population.

It was on this very training ground that, at the close of the 1990s, Germany’s first returning pair of wild wolves was confirmed. In 2000, the female gave birth to a litter of cubs. They were the first wild wolves to be born in the country in about 150 years.

You can easily see why the newcomers made themselves at home in the military zone. Off-limits to civilians, there is little disturbance (quiet areas can always be found away from booming guns and rattling tanks) and the wooded areas are rich in prey. For a wolf, it doesn’t really get much better.

How did wolves return to Germany?

Rumours spread that the wolves had been unofficially reintroduced, but genetic analysis has proved without any doubt that they arrived under their own steam. Today, Upper Lusatia, a region mostly located in Saxony, has a high wolf density, comprising many territories adjacent to each other. The population extends north-west to Hamburg, Berlin and beyond, with small satellite territories dotted in the west of the country.

Over the years, the few individuals fitted with radio collars have provided valuable data on movement and migration. One wolf travelled east, made its way through Poland and stayed in the border area between Belarus and Lithuania, clocking up a journey of about 800km as the crow flies from its home in Saxony. Indeed, wolves can travel great distances to find new territories, meaning a wolf could appear anywhere in Germany at any time.

Without radio collars, tracking down such elusive creatures is extremely challenging. Camera traps – the secret eyes of researchers – are indispensable to the cause, with hundreds deployed across Germany’s forests. Prints in the sand, on damp ground or in the snow also provide clues to the animals’ whereabouts, as does the presence of territorial scats.

According to the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), 158 wolf packs, 27 pairs and 20 solitary animals were confirmed in Germany in the last monitoring year. In total, the population could number about 1,200 wolves. Nobody knows the exact number as these wide-ranging and secretive animals cannot be counted individually, and pack size can fluctuate between five and ten animals over the course of a year, but the number of territories is well known, so these figures are still good and as accurate as they can be based on scientific monitoring data.

With its wooded low mountain ranges, as well as the Alps and their surrounds, Germany has many regions that would be suitable for wolves that are yet to be repopulated. According to the BfN, there could be space for about 700–1,400 wolf territories in Germany. The animals can live in any area that is large enough and that offers suitable shelter and prey.

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While many wolves that arrive in Germany make it their forever home, some of their descendants will keep moving. Step by step, successive generations can make their way to other countries and extend
the range. Some have returned to Poland, the homeland of their ancestors. Others have settled in Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands, living secret lives out of sight of humans.

One of the few people that has seen a wolf is Frank Neumann, who manages a large sheep farm. Because his animals were easy pickings for these predators, he has encountered them many times. Now, he protects his charges using electric fences and livestock guardians in the form of Pyrenean mountain dogs, which have been bred in their homeland for centuries to guard sheep. Puppies are born surrounded by sheep, imprint on them, and thus defend them like their own. For Frank, who lost 38 sheep in five separate wolf attacks, calm has been restored. The wolves may still try their luck, but quickly realise it is simply not worth the effort and switch their hunting efforts to elsewhere.

Interestingly, the wolves also help to protect the sheep by defending their territory against rivals. “My pack doesn’t let any unknown wolves in,” says Frank. “The wolves that live here are indirectly protecting my sheep alongside the dogs.”

[image id="78197" size="full" align="none" title="Wolves©Axel Gomille-8" alt="Wolves©Axel Gomille-8" classes=""] ©Axel Gomille

Adjusting to a new life in Germany comes with many challenges for the incoming wolves. It is not always easy living in the shadows. The biggest danger to them is road collisions, with 567 fatalities known to date. Humans are the next significant threat. Some hunters resort to shooting wolves illegally, unhappy that they are claiming a share of ‘their’ game and frustrated that, with predators roaming the forests again, the resident deer have become more skittish and are therefore harder targets. So far, 69 illegal killings of wolves have been recorded, but many more are likely to have gone undocumented.

“Under German law, wolves enjoy the highest levels of protection. Deliberately killing them is a criminal act,” says Anke Stroh from Saxony’s police department. Potential punishments include the lifelong revocation of a hunting license, fines of up to €50,000 and up to five years in prison.

For years, hunting associations and some representatives from the farming industry have lobbied to reduce the strict protected status of wolves and to have them included in hunting law. So far, they have failed.

One major challenge to accepting wolves on the landscape is the question of the danger they may pose to humans. None of the lurid stories that have haunted the German media have withstood serious scrutiny. Since the wolves’ return, not one person has been killed or injured by them.

[pullquote quote="“Under German law, wolves enjoy the highest levels of protection. Deliberately killing them is a criminal act.”" author="Anke Stroh, Saxony's Police Department" /]

Indeed, encounters with wolves in the wild are vanishingly rare. To get my shots, I had to spend weeks out in the field, waiting for them to emerge from the cover of the trees and consistently found them to be extremely cautious. Wolves have far more refined senses than humans, and will do everything they can to give us a wide berth.

The longer people exist side by side with these animals and realise that they do not affect our everyday lives, the faster the fuss will subside.

People can still go for a walk or forage for mushrooms in the forest, and will likely never set eyes on a wolf. Furthermore, a generational change is currently in the air. Children in Germany today are growing up with wolves as a natural part of their landscape – a wolf is another wild animal, just like a deer, fox or wild boar. This is a huge opportunity, because conservation only works if a species is accepted by the people. Time is working for wolves.

Germany is one of the most powerful industrial nations on Earth, with practically every square metre cultivated or built on. The return of wolves seemed as unlikely as the fall of the Berlin Wall, yet both have occurred within the last few decades. The wolves have proved that they can live perfectly well in a country like Germany, and they don’t need areas of total wilderness. We know everything we must do to coexist with wolves with the bare minimum of conflict. It just depends on whether people are ready for it.

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The other animal species thriving in Germany's military grounds

Many species thrive in Germany’s military training grounds as they are large, have no permanent human presence and are full of prey.

There are 17 active sites in Germany, the largest of which covers 280km2. They are big enough so that wildlife can retreat to quiet areas during exercises.

Here are three species that, alongside the wolf, are doing well in these unintentional havens:

White-tailed eagle

These powerful eagles don’t just rely on the wetlands to hunt, they also like to eat carrion and benefit from the wolves’ prey remains. They can breed in high densities on the military training grounds.

Red deer

Red deer are strictly regulated in many regions of Germany, but there are large populations on military training grounds. The young animals in particular are an important prey for wolves.

Common crane

Cranes benefit from the seclusion and tranquility in many parts of these restricted areas. The swamps in which they breed are of no interest for military training operations and consequently the birds can breed successfully here.

Axel Gomille is a zoologist, photographer and film-maker from Germany, focussing on wildlife and conservation. He has produced two books on Germany’s wild wolves. You can find out more at axelgomille.com/english.