The first of four pilots on the prevention of wolf attacks and the protection of farm animals has started. It concerns the installation of wolf-proof fences at sheep farmers with the aim of determining how much labor costs are involved. The province has asked sheep farmer Stefan Worst from Vledder to install the fences.
In the meantime, five sheep farmers have reported to him and the placement has started. The sheep farmers supply the material, which they were able to purchase with a subsidy from the province. Worst uses a quad with six pulleys that can roll up and down wires for the installation. He developed that system himself.
“Stefan Worst was chosen because he is a sheep farmer who has had many attacks and is very active in protecting his sheep as much as possible with wolf-resistant grids,” says a spokesperson for the province. “He and his company are located in the middle of the Drents-Friese Wold wolf area, where a pack has settled. Stefan Worst knows his environment and has good relationships with fellow sheep farmers. The monitoring within the project is mainly aimed at the working hours for the placing the grids, a log is carefully kept for this.”
Diederik Sleurink of LTO has joined the pilot from the Area Committee for the Prevention of Wolf Damage. Wolf consultant Jaap Mekel is closely involved in the correct placement and periodic checking of the grids.
A second pilot is about measuring possible negative influences on other fauna of different types of fencing: a fixed fence, a grid and flexinets. Livestock farmer Albert ten Heuvel from Fluitenberg made the suggestion for this pilot during the visit of Minister Christianne van der Wal to Drenthe on 5 December last year and is therefore involved in the pilot.
“Together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries, we are conducting a field investigation with wildlife cameras at a few strategically chosen locations. We are currently working with an external agency to formulate the assignment more precisely. About where the pilot will take place and how , including monitoring, no decision has been made at this time,” says the spokesperson for the province.
A third pilot is about mapping the consequential damage of a wolf attack on a flock of pregnant sheep. “We measure the stress in the lambs for this. If they are stressed, there is also often a lower birth weight. The lambs of four or five different couples that have had to deal with a wolf attack are monitored for two months. After eight weeks, the weight is measured again. As a check, just as many couples are followed that have not had to deal with a wolf attack,” says veterinarian Bernd Hietberg, who is involved in the pilot. Ynte Hein Schukken, the general director of the Animal Health Service (GD), analyzes the data.
A fourth pilot is a plan by TU Delft students. They want to demarcate a plot with wolf urine, to suggest a territory border. The idea is that the wolf does not cross the urine border because of its conflict-avoiding nature and leaves ungulates alone behind this trail. This pilot is expected to take place next summer.