Wolf spotted in Hoge Veluwe National Park despite fence; Multiple mouflons dead

A wolf was sighted in the National Park Hoge Veluwe in Gelderland on Tuesday, according to De Stentor, despite efforts to keep the wolves out. Three mouflons are said to have been ripped by the wolf.

“I’m sure it was the wolf”, head of operations at Hoge Veluwe Jakob Leidekker told De Stentor. “We saw him. Exactly how many we don’t know. Our area is large and we cannot be everywhere all the time. We found a few.”

The enclosure of the wolves in Hoge Veluwe is more than ten thousand football fields large. The province of Gelderland only agreed to the wolves on the condition that a fence would be constructed through which the wolf would not be able to pass, yet the fence has proved to be surmountable.

Leidekker thought the wolf was able to slip through due to a gap in the fence. “The only question is: why is there a hole. Was the wolf helped?”, he questioned.

Director of the Hoge Veluwe was strictly against bringing the wolf to Hoge Veluwe. He said he is afraid that the wolf will kill a large part of the mouflon population. There are currently around 200 mouflons living in the park. Hoge Veluwe is also home to other large mammals, such as red deer, who have not been able to leave at will due to the long fence.

The wolves are not allowed to be shot because they are native to the Netherlands and, therefore, have a protective status. A whole family of wolves was caught on caerma earlier this year in Veluwe.

In 1982, all European countries pledged to protect the wolf, and many other endangered species, in the Berne Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats.