Do we have to worry now that a Gelderse Wolf has jumped almost twenty times over a wolf -resistant grid? No, if it is up to Wolvenconsulent Jaap Mekel from the province of Drenthe.
“We haven’t seen this behavior at Wolven in Drenthe yet,” says Mekel. “De Wolf came back to the Netherlands ten years and this is the first wolf to do this as far as we know.” According to the wolven consultant, jumping is also not at all in the nature of the wolf. “If he has the choice to walk around something or to jump over something, he always opts for the first.”
The fence that the wolf jumped over met the guidelines drawn up by BIJ12, the organization that regulates Wolvenzaken for provinces. The grid must be at least 120 centimeters high and there must be power threads. According to Mekel, that electrical voltage mainly has a deterrent effect. “Animals feel electricity at a distance.”
On the videos that circulate of the jumping wolf in Barneveld, it is difficult to see if there was tension on the fence, says Mekel. “In Drenthe there is a practical test going on in which there are devices on the gates that check the voltage. If it is lower than a certain number of volts, the farmer will receive a notification on his phone.”
Are the requirements of Bij12 for the graters outdated, now that a wolf has jumped over it? “The requirements of the fences do not have to be revised,” says Mekel. “This is the first time that a wolf has showed this behavior in the Netherlands.”
According to the National Wolven Plan, a wolf that attacks sheep more than twice in two weeks behind a fence. De Wolf at Barneveld has killed around sixty sheep in recent months and therefore receives this stamp according to the rules. The male with the name code GW4003M is therefore finished, if it is up to the province of Gelderland. The province is working on a permit for this.