Name: Austria: Living with wolves
Uploaded: 2025-12-22T10:30:32.992Z
Duration: 5 min 4 s
Description: Austria faces a dilemma: Should wolves be shot or should people learn to coexist with them?

Austria faces a dilemma: Should wolves be shot or should people learn to coexist with them?

Vienna

Farmers in Carinthia, Austria, are contending with rising wolf populations that threaten livestock, leading to significant economic losses and changes in farming practices. In response, the regional government introduced regulations in 2022 allowing wolves to be shot if they approach within 200 meters of pastures or settlements, resulting in a higher rate of wolf culling compared to other regions.

The new policy has sparked controversy, with animal rights activists criticizing it as excessive, while officials cite support from a recent EU directive that downgrades the wolf's protection status. Some farmers, like Michael Knolzeisen, advocate for coexistence with wolves, but this remains an uncommon stance among alpine farmers in the region.

Austria: Living with wolves

Alpine farmer Michael Knolzeisen lives in Mödtal Valley in the Austrian state of Carinthia and keeps around 40 animals. This is Rosalina. She's my youngest daughter's favorite. They all have names. Every day he works to protect his sheep from wolves. For this he needs an electric fence running a pretty high voltage. 7,500. The stronger, the better. Get one connected to the wet ground. You definitely shouldn't touch it. It won't kill a wolf, but it should scare it away, offering effective herd protection. Wolves are everywhere in Carinthia. The result of leaving a herd unguarded can be seen in the next valley. These lambs survived the wolf attack. But because their mother died and there was no milk, the young ones died. And there have been other attacks. Alpine farmer Georg Lexer once had a flock of 40. Now he's down to eight. It was simply too costly to keep more. We used to always have sheep grazing on the alpine pasture. But now we can't anymore because we would need a dedicated shepherd. So we had to scale back and now have only a few sheep. He's not the only one. For many alpine farmers, sheep farming is no longer profitable. In 2022, Carinthia introduced regulations, making it easier to cull wolves. If a wolf comes within 200 meters of an alpine pasture, feeding site or even settlement, it can be shot. Hunter Raphael Gressl helps to monitor the area near the border with Italy, where many wolf packs live or pass through. Where we are now in summer, from June to September, there are about 120 cows. This is a mother cow pasture, so there are calves. Young animals, perhaps five or six months old. For a wolf, it's like you laid out a feast. Actually he has no gripe with wolves per se, as long as they pass by the sheep or cattle herd. But he knows many can't resist attacking the animals. And he's had to shoot a wolf himself. A wolf that's learned to kill sheep will go after sheep. A wolf or a pack that traditionally kills or hunts cattle will continue to attack cattle. So is the answer to just shoot the wolf on sight? I'm absolutely against those who say all wolves should be eliminated. No, they shouldn't. For me, wolves are part of the cultural landscape. But, and this is due to our history as humans, they should be kept at a number that's compatible with this habitat. Hunters have killed around 30 wolves in Carinthia since the regulation went into effect, a proportionately higher kill rate than elsewhere. Animal rights activists say the regulation in Carinthia goes too far, calling it a shooting frenzy. A wolf just has to come within 200 meters of a farmstead or feeding site in the middle of a dense forest. If it returns after you've scared it off once, by waving or clapping, that's enough to shoot it. You don't even need permission from the state. You can kill it on the spot. But officials in Carinthia believe the law's on their side, and feel supported by a new EU directive downgrading the wolf from being strictly protected to protected. In the case of an animal that's not in danger of extinction, but which poses a certain threat and can represent a danger to life and limb, and also to livestock, it must be possible to intervene. We've chosen a legal route in Carinthia that allows us to do this, and it's starting to bear fruit. Officials say the number of sheep killed by wolves has dropped. Back with Michael Knolzeisen. Come on, up here. The organic farmer says he's seen wolves here, but he won't shoot them. What bothers me most is the message that a quick bullet to the head is the solution. The only way to solve the problem is to eradicate wolves. But that's not possible legally, socially or technically. We have far too much wildlife and forest. The wolf cannot be eradicated. The farmer says the thing to do is co-exist with the wolf. With this viewpoint, he's something of a rarity among alpine farmers.

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