08\/01\/2025August 1, 2025Germany reports improved wolf population in parts of the country<\/p>\n
The German government has reported a “favorable” conservation status for wolves<\/a> in parts of the country to the European Commission for the first time since numbers were tracked.<\/p>\n In 2023\/24, authorities documented 209 wolf packs and about 1,600 individuals across Germany.<\/p>\n The favorable designation applies to the so-called Atlantic region, which includes the North Sea coast and parts of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, and North Rhine-Westphalia, the Environment Ministry says.<\/p>\n Officials said the wolf population in these areas has developed “significantly positively” in recent years.\u00a0The German government plans to allow hunting again as a next step for the area, but it might take longer for the\u00a0rest of Germany.<\/p>\n That has prompted the\u00a0German Farmers’ Association has accused\u00a0the German\u00a0government of a “tactical delay” in its regional approach. It wants hunting to be allowed more urgently\u00a0as a way to protect livestock.<\/p>\n The\u00a0status of the wolf for the larger continental region \u2014 which includes most of Germany outside the Alps \u2014 remains “unknown” for now. The government says it will assess this region based on a newly agreed methodology between the federal and state governments and later submit findings to Brussels.<\/p>\n Under the EU’s Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive, a favorable conservation status means there is enough habitat and food to ensure the species’ long-term survival, and that the population is large enough not to be at risk from factors like disease, road accidents, or poaching.<\/p>\n In the last EU report in 2019, Germany\u2019s wolf population was still considered in “unfavorable” condition. Species listed as such may not be legally hunted under EU law<\/a>.<\/p>\n EU to weaken legal protection of wolves<\/p>\n