Wolves are top predators in the food chain. Their presence in nature is essential to maintain ecosystems in balance, preventing the excessive multiplication of the herbivores they feed on. But obviously, when they roam in a humanized environment, the interests of wolves and humans come into conflict, and in these cases, humans usually triumph. It is no coincidence that in the past, European wolves were practically driven to extinction. And to avoid seeing them disappear permanently from our territories, in 1992 the EU established the status of strict protection for these animals with the “Habitats Directive”, prohibiting any form of capture, killing or disturbance.
The plan worked, leading to the repopulation of European wolves in 20 years. So well, in fact, that today there are those who would like to take a step back: the European Parliament voted last year to ask the Commission to review the status attributed to the wolf within the EU borders, and the Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen seems determined to proceed (gossip insinuates that the death of the president’s favorite pony, Dolly, killed by a wolf in 2022 may have played a significant role in the issue). Animal rights activists and environmentalists have obviously sworn to fight, and after the summer break, and the re-election of von der Leyen, the showdown is expected in the coming months. Is Europe ready to reopen the hunt for wolves? While waiting for an answer, let’s see what the current situation is.
The Return of the Wolf
Wolves have inhabited the European continent since prehistoric times, but over the last few centuries they have been hunted to extinction in many countries in northern and central Europe. In Italy they have never completely disappeared, but in the early 1970s there were barely a hundred of them left in the Apennines. Since then, laws protecting these animals (such as the “strictly protected species” status introduced in 1992) have allowed the species to grow again, repopulating areas where these animals had disappeared, and thus pushing into the Alps and beyond, to reach France and the rest of Europe.
It is no coincidence that the return of the wolf to Europe is an Italian phenomenon. In the last 10 years, the range of these animals on the continent has expanded by 25%, populations are expanding in 17 of the 24 EU countries, and in 2023 the total population of wolves in Europe (according to a study commissioned in 2023 by the European Commission) reached 20,356 specimens. The country that hosts the most is Italy, with over 3 thousand specimens now spread throughout the peninsula, closely followed by Romania and Bulgaria, and then Spain (2,000-2,500), Greece, Germany and France (about a thousand each).
Damage and fear
The return of the wolf, of course, is accompanied by a resumption of attacks on livestock. European laws provide for compensation, but these are rarely considered sufficiently high and timely by farmers. According to the European Commission, each year, livestock animals are killed by wolves, mostly sheep. The countries with the highest number of killings are Spain, France and Italy. And although the animals that die in this way are a tiny fraction of those raised in Europe (for sheep, we are talking about just 0.07% of the total), many European farmers’ associations have long been calling for the possibility of killing wolves, or at least problematic specimens (an option already possible by decision of individual national authorities), to be reintroduced more easily.
As for the dangers to humans, in Europe at the moment we can say that there are none. In fact, in the last 20 years there has never been an attack on our species on European soil. And even where this happens (for example in North America), it is almost always due to animals suffering from rabies, a disease that is not present in European populations.
How will it end?
The European Commission appears intent on pushing ahead with its proposal to revise the status of the wolf, which would downgrade it from a “strictly protected species” to a simply “protected” species, opening the door to selective culling, which could be decided independently of each individual state, while ensuring that the conservation status of the species is not put at risk.
Against the commission, as we said, are more or less all the environmental associations, which have launched several petitions to ask not to change the current rules. And apparently, also a good portion of the European population: a survey carried out last year indicated that, despite everything, 68% of the citizens of the European rural areas, and 65% of farmers and breeders, are against the downgrading of the protection status of wolves.