Wolf management in Germany

The return of wolves to Germany’s cultural landscape is a success story for conservation on the one hand, but is also connected to a range of challenges on the other hand. Wolves are strictly protected by law on the national and international level. Conflicts that are caused by the return of wolves need to be minimised to facilitate coexistence between wolves and humans. This is achieved through wolf management, which is conducted by the federal states.

In the framework of the wolf management, basic distribution and conflict data are collected and public relation activities are conducted. In this context, the worries and fears should be addressed and unfounded prejudices reduced through scientific results. Organising the protection of livestock from wolf attacks is another important component to wolf management. This is achieved through the assistance of livestock farmers/animal owners and publication and application of established livestock protection measures. When livestock is killed despite protection measures, the wolf management is responsible for determining if a wolf is responsible for the damage and, if applicable, arranging compensation measures. Another important task of the wolf management is the monitoring of the wolf population, i.e. surveying the occurrence in terms of distribution, dynamic changes and favourable conservation status.