The wolf has been in the country for a while and is advancing west. The predator recently turned up at Maartensdijk in Utrecht, more than 50 kilometers from the Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen near Zandvoort. If there were a wolf travel guide, it would say something like: “a little crowded, but plenty to eat.” Would the wolf be able to thrive in this nature reserve?
“As a fallow deer I would be a bit worried.” According to predator expert Jaap Mulder, anything is possible. “It’s not a wolf’s goal or anything. You can’t predict it. We do know that roaming young wolves are looking for two things: a territory, a habitat with enough food, and a mate. The first wolf to come to us enters the dunes, it will not find a partner, but it will find enough prey. It could settle there.”
“We have noticed that wolves can get everywhere. Obstacles are apparently easy for wolves to overcome. They swim over water, walk on roads. Roaming animals have been filmed that walk in front of a car or straight through a village. They will not just enter end up in the center of Amsterdam, but in the suburbs.”
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Earlier, Amsterdam alderman Melanie van der Horst (Public space and Green) said that the wolf is very welcome. Preferably not in the center of the city, but about 40 kilometers away, in the Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen. It’s swarming with fallow deer there. They eat everything bare and despite the fences around the area they walk through residential areas and along the railways.
Out of necessity, some 14,000 fallow deer have been shot since 2016. “There is management here,” says forest ranger Martin Jonker. “A wolf could help us with this indeed.”
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The wolf has not yet shown itself in the dune area, but according to expert Mulder that could just be different tomorrow. “With a bit of luck, a wolf can walk from, for example, Naarden to Zandvoort in one long night.”
Too busy, too small
And then the question is whether that walk is worth it. According to forest ranger Jonker, the area is too busy for the wolf and too small. “If you see how many people come here, it’s just incredibly busy for a wolf. If I were a wolf, it would drive me crazy.”
And whether Jonker himself is waiting for the wolf: “On the one hand, it is very nice when the wolf comes this way. On the other hand, I also think: ‘we will see what the wolf does on the way somewhere.” In addition to biodiversity and natural interest, we are of course also a recreational area where 1 million people come every year. And they also think something about it. Time will tell how that goes together.”
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