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fromClaudia Kabel
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A wolf kills a deer in Ober-Ramstadt, in Fischbachtal one goes into a camera trap. Wolf consultant Raina Kessler reports on her work.
The carcass of a deer has just been found in Fischbachtal ”, says wolf consultant Raina Kessler. It is uncertain whether the deer was ripped off by the same wolf that was recently photographed nearby in the middle of the forest. Because the deer carcass was too decomposed to take a sample, which has to happen within 48 hours, explains Kessler.
Kessler or her colleague Karlheinz Kinzer are called whenever a wrecked deer or sheep is found, piles of feces are discovered or footprints point to a wolf. The two volunteer wolf advisors from the Odenwaldkreis were trained to document the signs of a wolf population and to take samples – all on behalf of the Hessian State Office for Nature Conservation, Environment and Geology (HLNUG). There are a total of 40 voluntary wolf advisors: all over Hesse. If necessary, Kinzer and Kessler also help out in the neighboring district of Darmstadt-Dieburg.
Kessler has now also confirmed the authenticity of the photograph of a wolf in Fischbachtal. There on October 7th at 0.26 a.m. between Fränkisch-Crumbach and Niedernhausen a wolf fell into the camera trap of a hunting tenant. “We checked whether the picture was really taken at the specified location,” the 58-year-old told Frankfurter Rundschau. For comparison, you usually take a photo from the same perspective. Branches, trees or stones that could be seen served as clues.
A week earlier, on September 30th, a wolf had killed a deer in Ober-Modau, a district of Ober-Ramstadt near Darmstadt. A DNA analysis by the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research showed that the animal comes from a wolf population in the Alps and has never been detected in Germany. As the HLNUG further announced, the wolf got the identification GW1835m. A herd of origin of the male could not be determined.
Tracks of wolves
There were 51 wolves Detected this year by photos or genetic analyzes in Hessen. Two wolves are considered to be sedentary – in Vogelsberg and in Northern Hesse.
68 suspected cases could not be confirmed or were assigned to dogs or foxes. In five cases in the Schwalm-Eder district and in the Marburg-Biedenkopf and Hersfeld-Rotenburg districts, the results of the genetic analyzes are still pending.
The HLNUG provides information on all wolf occurrences and suspected cases
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It is the third record of a wolf from the Alpine population in Hesse. With the exception of a male run over in the Gießen area in 2011 and the animal that killed sheep in Lautertal (Bergstrasse district) in May, all wolves previously identified in Hesse came from the northern and eastern federal states, according to the HLNUG.
It remains unclear whether GW1835m is the same animal that was photographed in Fischbachtal. This “cannot be determined from a photo,” said the Hessian Wolf Commissioner Susanne Jokisch on request. Kessler suspects that the current cases could be the two wolves that were found in April near Reichelsheim in the Odenwald and that have now penetrated further into the Darmstadt-Dieburg district. A wolf covers a distance of up to 70 kilometers a day. Whether the wolf will stay in the region is questionable. “Hopefully it won’t be run over,” says Kessler. There are many roads and the animals like to use them as well as railways and paths, says Kessler. They would also run across villages. It is important not to attract them with food or leftover food.
Kessler, who is a forester, faces hostility often enough in her work as a wolf consultant. “You get insulted when you go to a crime scene,” she says. The greatest headwind would come from sheep and goat farmers who fear for their cattle. In fact, it is “not a pretty sight” when a wolf has killed a sheep. There are also “wolf haters” among the hunters. But shooting the protected animals is prohibited and constitutes a criminal offense.
“The wolf is welcome in Hesse,” the Ministry of the Environment announces on its website, where there is also a registration form for sightings and information about compensation for animal owners. Since 2006, individual wandering wolves have repeatedly been found in Hesse without being released, attracted or settled. Two wolves – in Northern Hesse and in the Vogelsbergkreis – have been considered sedentary since spring, they were detected in one region for over half a year.
Since a lot of evidence of wolf occurrences takes place in photos, people in southern Hesse are dependent on private photos. While 60 camera traps are being operated in a project in northern Hesse, the HLNUG has not yet operated a single camera location in southern Hesse, says Jokisch.
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