Comment by defrost
16 hours ago
The wolves seemingly made it back into the Netherlands on their own:
In a paper published in 2016, “The first proof of the recent presence of Wolves in the Netherlands,” authors wrote:
“In light of the expansion of wolves from the Polish border to the northwest of Germany and the sightings in Denmark, the appearance of the wolf in the Netherlands was no surprise to most experts. In March 2015, this expectation was fulfilled when, after generations without resident wolves, a single wolf wandered through the Dutch provinces of Drenthe and Groningen in broad daylight. From 7 to 10 March 2015, the Netherlands witnessed the comeback of an iconic species.”
~ https://wolf.org/wow/europe/netherlands/
Wolf numbers are now reportedly at 131 split across roughly 14 packs (April 2026): https://nltimes.nl/2026/04/11/dutch-wolf-population-growing-...
I have zero insight into why Wageningen University & Research (WUR) in the Netherlands concluded in a study that "the Netherlands are legally required to contribute between 23 and 56 wolf packs" (Lost in translation? - perhaps "can support and shouldn't cull below these numbers" ?)
~ https://www.wur.nl/en/news/ecological-and-legal-framework-wo...
Dutch version of the WUR page says basically the same thing: "Uit het onderzoeksrapport blijkt dat Nederland juridisch gezien een bijdrage aan de wolvenpopulatie moet leveren van 23 tot 56 roedels. " -> the study concludes that the Netherlands has to contribute to the wolf population from 23 to 56 wolf packs.
Reading further:
https://edepot.wur.nl/690748
It seems that this is part of a european "habitats directive" for managing biodiversity within Europe. This directive (according to the above paper) determined there need to be around 500 wolf packs across Europe to keep wolves at a stable level without too much inbreeding. The Netherlands was found to be able to "contribute" 23 to 56 wolf packs in this sense.
Ah, cheers for that - I'm on the other side of the planet and was happy to do a bit of light digging on the situation but limited by not having much grasp of the written language.
Shame they can't swim, it would be good to see them reintroduced to the UK.
And bears and Lynx, Moose/Elk too I guess, Wolverines?
Actually in Kent there's a park where they are reintroducing European Bison, and alongside them some Elk. I mean it is a fenced off area experiment.
There are so many deer around here now, they're asking people to hunt them and trying to start a taste for venison.
The bison have been around for 4 or so years now. It's in Blean Woods near Canterbury.
https://wilderness-society.org/wolf-pack-released-in-the-sco...
(Edit, this is an april fools, shit)
the official position is: https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202500453124/
Which given how much of the private land in scotland is owned for deer or grouse shooting, that seems logical.
That's a curious one - dated 2015 and yet articles from Scotland in 2025 and 206, in addition to notoriously unreliable "AI summaries" all assert or imply that there are currently no wolves in Scotland.
Your link might have been wishful thinking by the wilderness society boosting an unconfirmed hearsay, or perhaps it was true but the few wolves mentioned didn't flourish.
eg: (2025) - Scientists want to release 160 wolves in Scotland... https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/home-news/uk-160-wol...
Look at the first comment, that was an April fools joke.
2 replies →
If those were wild sheep, and the wolves came there on their own like the other comments said, isn't that just nature working as intended?
If those were private sheep, shouldn't they be better guarded?
As a livestock owner not in the Netherlands, yes, people should guard their stock.
That's somewhat distinct from going further beyond their boundaries to wipe out threats not directly on their land.
I think the issue is that for a number of generations parts of europe have not been used to apex predators.
In the UK we've not had wolves for >200 years. Which means techniques for dealing with them have been lost, and more importantly didn't evolve with land use change. hearders used to carry weapons, and guard dogs. some places had fainting goats.
I'm not sure how wolves would work in the netherlands, as the parts that I know are all way west of the ijssel. I don't imagine that wolves are fen/polder dwellers, but I might be wrong. Again looking at the norfolk/cambridge fens there are plenty of folklore tales https://www.norfolkfolkloresociety.co.uk/post/the-spectral-w...
5 replies →