Utrecht province urges parents to make children cycle in groups in wolf area

The province of Utrecht has urged parents living on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug to make sure their children cycle in groups to and from school if they go through the forest. The advice follows two incidents with a wolf and children earlier in the summer.

According to RTV Utrecht, the province and involved municipalities received signals from concerned parents about the safety of their children. School starts next week, and many kids in the area cycle through the forest to get to school and back home.

“The advice is to choose a route outside the forest area if possible,” the province and the municipality of Utrechtse Heuvelrug said. If it is not possible to avoid the forest, make sure kids cycle in groups. “Wolf experts indicate that wolves are not likely to approach groups of people by nature.”

“For children under the age of 10, the advice is to have them go to school accompanied by an adult.”

The province also asked people to report sightings of the wolf to the BIJ12’s wolf reporting point.

Earlier this summer, there were two incidents in which children sustained minor injuries after an encounter with a wolf in the Utrechtse Heuvelrug area.

On July 16th, children from an after-school care center were playing at the Den Treek nature reserve in Leusden when a wolf approached a girl from behind and bit her in the side, the childminders said. The wolf immediately let go, but the child got such a fright that she fell and got hurt.

At the end of July, another girl was knocked over by a large animal, believed to be a wolf, in Austerlitz. A stray dog may have been involved in this incident—the wolf may have been going after the dog and hit the girl in passing.