Wolves were thought to be extinct in Austria for over a century. The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) has now released photographs of wolves alive and well with their cubs in Lower Austria’s Waldviertel region.
Camera traps set up around the 15,000 hectare (37,000 acre) Allentsteig military camp captured images of four wolves, including two cubs. The Austrian army’s efforts over the last 20 years have greatly aided in the conservation of this area.
“These are the first wolves born in Austria since their extinction in the wild over 100 years ago,” said Otakar Jindrich, the area’s chief conservationist, in a WWF statement translated by Google.
“The young wolves are, in a sense, under military protection,” he joked.
A few wolves were seen sneaking into Austria from Italy, Switzerland, Slovenia, and Slovakia over the last decade, but they were not believed to have stayed. The new photographs, on the other hand, show promising evidence that wolves are happily remaining and reproducing in Austria once more.
Wolves were once common throughout northern and western Europe, including Britain. However, by the late nineteenth century, centuries of widespread hunting had taken their toll. Significant numbers of European wolves were only found in small and isolated pockets of Italy, Spain, and the former Soviet Union for much of the last century.
Nonetheless, the wolf has recently returned to other countries in western and northern Europe. Wild populations have returned to Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway since the 1950s, owing largely to massive conservation efforts. They now appear to have Austrian neighbors as well.
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