The Wolves, based in Drenthe, are mainly targeting deer and cattle, and to a much lesser extent on sheep. But what about all those attacks on sheep? They seem to be the victim of wandering wolves, says researcher Glenn Lelieveld.
New research, in which seven hundred wolf droppings have been studied, appears to be the deer (present in 53 percent of the droppings) on the menu in Drenthe. The grazing nature of nature (37 percent) also has its share. For comparison: sheep was found in 6 percent of the stool. In the Veluwe that percentage is much smaller.
Wolven expert Lelieveld is involved in the research. He is surprised by the results. “Every time sheep are attacked, it seems like a newspaper head,” he says. “That can quite affect our image of what a wolf eats. Because when we look at the research, we especially see that the Wolf is a specialist in the field of wild horseshoes. So deer, boar and deer.”
Those are the animals that are eaten a lot in the Veluwe. Significantly more often than sheep who also walk around with many.
Lelieveld suspects that a lot of sheep fall victim to the wolf, also has to do with the sheep itself. “If a red deer is caught, the rest of the herd stands a kilometer away. Sheep come to the wolf. Instinctively he will take more sheep.”
The WolvenExpert blames the behavior of the sheep on people. “He has unlearned the natural behavior. We do not want a sheep to walk away like a shepherd with a dog with the herd. We have made the animal a bit stupid in that regard, so that they are more manageable. But if they come to the wolf, that is not handy.”
Apparently the wild hoof animals enjoy the wolf more priority. Although there is an important comment on that. “We are investigating the turds we can find,” Lelieveld begins. “And those are turds of wolves from packs.” They use their stools for delimitation of the territory and can therefore be found. “We don’t find drolls from wolves on wandering.”
The researchers suspect that it is precisely those ‘roaming’ wolves to attack sheep more often. That stool is spread over the landscape and does not return to the research results. “A small defect,” Lelieveld acknowledges. “Wandering wolves often walk past nature reserves, looking for a new habitat. It is precisely the places where sheep are. These wolves that we cannot follow are very harmful.”