But conservation success brought an old conflict back with it. Wolves eat sheep. They kill more than 65,500 head of livestock in the EU each year, according to data collected between 2017 and 2022 by the European Commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As rural frustration grew, the EU began considering whether it was time to reverse course. In May last year, the European Parliament voted to change the wolf\u2019s status from \u201cstrictly protected\u201d to \u201cprotected.\u201d Both the European People\u2019s Party and political groups further to the right voted heavily in favor<\/a> of the proposal, which was also backed by the powerful Copa-Cogeca agricultural lobby<\/a> in Brussels.\u00a0<\/p>\n Under the former rules, wolves could only be killed under special circumstances, such as when an individual animal caused severe damage, said Ettore Randi, professor of biology at Aalborg University. The new rules are more pliable. \u00a0 Conservation scientists, however, sounded the alarm. Some argued that European wolves had yet to reach the \u201cfavorable conservation status<\/a>\u201d required to justify the loosened protection \u2014 meaning that their populations and range should be sufficiently stable and their habitats secure, Randi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The change, said Sabien Leemans, senior biodiversity policy officer at the World Wildlife Fund\u2019s European Policy Office, \u201cturned one of Europe\u2019s greatest conservation successes into a political bargaining chip, putting science-based policymaking at risk.\u201d Now pro-wolf groups are suing the EU<\/a> in the European Court of Justice to reverse the change.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Managing wolves\u00a0<\/p>\n The argument is now playing out across Europe, but with very different consequences depending on the country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Germany, which had some of the strongest wolf protections in the EU and a recovering population, has now established a hunting season for wolves, and some states are already issuing permits, according to Sybille Klenzendorf, director for wildlife conservation\u00a0at World Wildlife Fund Germany.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The shift has been politically charged. Reducing the wolf population became an issue in Germany\u2019s coalition negotiations in 2025, even though scientists say the country\u2019s wolves haven\u2019t reached the standards to be considered a fully recovered population.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n For some pro-wolf activists, the move smacked of political expediency. \u201cIt\u2019s low-hanging political fruit that makes it seem as if they\u2019re doing something for the agricultural community,\u201d said Klenzendorf. \u201cEven though it\u2019s not the right thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In Sweden, where three wolves that migrated from Finland have grown into a 300-strong population in the country\u2019s south, the government has pursued winter hunts<\/a> with the goal of slashing the population by half. \u00a0 Austria has gone even further. Wolves only returned to the country in 2016, and now number a mere eight packs, yet 20% of the population was shot last year. \u201cLocal politicians said no,\u201d explained Christophe Pichler, a wildlife biologist with World Wildlife Fund Austria.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Rural communities saw it as unfair for decisions to be made in Brussels while they were left to live with the consequences. The European Court of Justice had already ruled against Austria\u2019s wolf hunting practices<\/a> in 2024, before the EU loosened its protections.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Austria is not an isolated case. Several countries including Sweden, France and non-EU Norway also killed wolves under the former strict-protection regime. Wildlife groups argue that many of those killings were illegal.\u00a0<\/p>\n French shepherds fight back\u00a0<\/p>\n The city hall chamber in the tranquil French Alps mountain town of Manigod looks out over pastures that have long hosted flocks of sheep. But for herdsmen Patrick Gallay and Renaud Bozon-Liaudet, those mountains have now become filled with threats \u2014 and bureaucratic headaches. Between 10,000 and 12,000 sheep are killed by wolves in France<\/a> each year, according to the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, and Manigod is one of the most predated communes<\/a> in the entire Haute-Savoie department.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2023, wolves attacked Gallay\u2019s sheep despite the measures he had put in place, which included electric fencing. Over the course of five attacks, 38 of his animals \u2014 a quarter of his flock \u2014 were killed.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe feel a knot in our stomachs, and we\u2019re only happy when we shut the fences to the goat pen, knowing for sure the flock is inside,\u201d said Bozon-Liaudet, who is also Manigod\u2019s deputy mayor for environment and agriculture. \u201cYou have to experience it \u2014 you have to live through it \u2014 to know what it\u2019s like.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n France has allowed its farmers to fight back. For over a decade, the government has permitted targeted culling of wolves that are actively attacking livestock. After the EU changed its rules, France swiftly increased the number of wolves that can be killed each year<\/a> to a maximum of 23%, or 248 animals. Since April 1, farmers have also been allowed to carry out defensive shootings regardless of whether their flocks are properly protected. \u201cI want the power to protect my sheep flock,\u201d said Franck De-Nale, another sheep farmer in the region. \u201cThat means being able, in the event of an attack, to shoot it. If I kill it, well, I kill it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n While the expanded license to kill has angered pro-wolf activists, who feel farmers aren\u2019t doing enough to protect their flocks, some shepherds argue the changes don\u2019t go far enough. For years, French farmers have been required to use electrical fencing, human shepherds and livestock guardian dogs. Those measures can be expensive and difficult to maintain \u2014 and they can also create problems of their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n In tourist areas like Manigod, guard dogs can pose a risk to hikers. In July, a hiker in Manigod had to be evacuated by helicopter after being attacked by a guard dog<\/a>, said Bozon-Liaudet.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n More fundamentally, shepherds say the required protection measures and soaring wolf attacks are changing a way of life that has existed in the Alps for generations. \u201cI think we\u2019re protecting the animal too much at the expense of our heritage,\u201d said Joany Cassina, head of the sheep farmer\u2019s union in the Haute-Savoie. \u201cThis is destroying pastoralism.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n C\u00e9dric Laboret, president of the Savoie Mont-Blanc Chamber of Agriculture and a sheep farmer, sees the same divide at a political level. \u201cI think the politicians are aware of the wolf question, but for them, it\u2019s a bit abstract.\u201d Or as another shepherd from the region said: \u201cI\u2019ll wait until the day the politicians go out to tend a flock in a tent at night and it rains all night long \u2014 maybe then they\u2019ll understand the problem.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Does killing wolves work?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Beneath the political wrangling there\u2019s also the question of what measures actually reduce livestock attacks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n French conservation biologist Oksana Grente has studied wolves in the Alps since 2018. Her research found that targeted killings of wolves can reduce livestock predation, but the effect lasts only about 45 days and extends roughly 2 kilometers around the site of the killing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean shooting has no role, she said. \u201cTo have no attack, you will have to have no wolf, and this is not what we want,\u201d Grente said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we need strong non-lethal protection, and if the wolf density is too high, then you can reduce wolf density in certain areas.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In Germany, protection measures have been an effective way to reduce livestock losses, according to Klenzendorf. \u201cIf you invest in livestock protection, damages do go down,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is possible in alpine regions, near the North Sea, everywhere.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Even shepherds acknowledge that fencing and dogs work, even if they\u2019re frustrated by the hassle of having them. \u201cWe\u2019ve noticed that among herders, they tend to target herds with few protective measures, or measures that aren\u2019t as well-designed, rather than those that are fully protected,\u201d Gallay said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even so, Gallay believes the wolf population in the French Alps has grown so quickly that protection alone is no longer sufficient, especially as wolves have become better at evading protective measures and are getting closer to human habitations. He said that it was necessary to \u201ceradicate or drastically reduce the number of wolves.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe overpopulation we\u2019re currently facing is making conditions on the ground unbearable,\u201d said Laboret. \u201cIt\u2019s basically war.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That leaves governments with the double challenge of protecting livestock in areas where wolves are abundant while allowing the species to continue recovering in places where populations remain small.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Some shepherds and scientists therefore argue for a regional approach to wolf management, with different regional quotas depending on local populations rather than a single national system. More wolves could be culled in the Alps, for example, while smaller populations in northern France or the Pyrenees receive greater protection.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n For scientists like Grente, however, focusing only on predation and wolf population size undermines the broader goal of creating a healthy European wolf population that can coexist with humans. The focus, she said, should be increasing geographic dispersal across France and Europe so that isolated wolf populations \u2014 such as on the Iberian Peninsula or in Scandinavia \u2014 can connect and broaden the genetic pool.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n A minority bears the cost\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s another complication. The majority of Europeans aren\u2019t farmers. Only 3.9% of European workers<\/a> were employed in agriculture in 2023, according to Commission data. But farmers bear the costs of the wolf\u2019s return most directly, in financial, practical and emotional terms.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The wider public tends to view wolves positively. In France, 82% of people say that a wolf has a place in the country\u2019s nature, while 76% say the species should remain protected, according to a French Institute of Public Opinion poll<\/a> conducted for World Wildlife Fund France.\u00a0<\/p>\n For pro-wolf activists like the Ferus volunteer, that disconnect is evidence that policy is being driven by a powerful rural agriculture lobby rather than broader public opinion or scientific evidence. French farmers have long been a highly organized political force, as repeated tractor protests in Paris and Brussels have demonstrated.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think the government has tried to channel the farmers\u2019 anger toward wolves to avoid addressing the real challenges facing French agriculture,\u201d the volunteer said. He argued that declining demand for mutton, rising imports and the Mercosur agreement have much more to do with the pressures facing French sheep farmers than wolves. Wolves kill just 0.065%<\/a> of the EU\u2019s sheep population each year, according to the Commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n Back in Saint-Gervais-les-bains, the volunteer took a final look through the infrared binoculars. The sheep and dog lay fitfully across the mountainside. No shepherd appeared to repair the downed fencing or to gather the flock. It was time to go home.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then came a bark from the ridge above. The outline of a Canis lupus emerged against the darkening sky. But the creature took another step, revealing its milk-white coat: it was the patous, doing its job. Somewhere, in the shadows, a wolf was likely out there, waiting to strike another day.<\/p>\n Sign up to The Parliament’s weekly newsletter<\/p>\n
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\n\u201cMember states now have additional flexibility in managing their local wolf populations,\u201d said a Commission spokesperson, \u201cand they can take measures adapted to regional circumstances to better protect humans and livestock, and prevent incidents.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n\u201cThe politicians would rather shoot the wolves than solve the problem of coexistence, to live side by side,\u201d said Kjell B\u00e4cklund, secretary general for the Swedish Carnivore Association. The situation is similar in Norway, which shares a small cross-border wolf population with Sweden.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"View](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_3215.jpeg\")
\nThe city hall chamber in the French town of Manigod, where wolves and shepherds often come into conflict in August, 2026. (Peder Schaefer)
<\/p>\n![\"Sheep](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_3199.jpeg\")
\nA flock of sheep high in the French Alps in August, 2026. (Peder Schaefer)
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