A new exhibition at the Webbekoms Broek visitors’ centre in Diest (Flemish Brabant) chronicles the return of the wolf to our region after an absence of more than 100 years. The centrepiece of the exhibition is the stuffed body of a wolf that was run over and killed by a car in Limburg Province.
In 2018 a wolf was spotted in Flanders for the first in more than a century. Since then, theLLimburg wolf pack has grown in numbers.
There are another two packs of wolves in Belgium. One on the High Fens in the east of Liège Province and another right on the country’s border with Germany.
As well as being spotted regularly in Limburg Province, there have also been sightings of the wolves from the Limburg pack in the east of Flemish Brabant, not far from where the exhibition is being held.
The exhibition shows how the wolf population in Belgium has evolved since the animal returned to the country during the first decade of the 21st century. A visit to the Webbekoms Broek Visitors centre also provides the ideal opportunity to explore the Halve Maan Provincial Estate that has many fine walks through its well-maintained grounds.
The Pop-Up Expo Wolves in Limburg exhibition runs until 26 March. The interactive exhibition focuses on the ups and downs of the Limburg wolf pack and offers information about how we can coexist with wolves living in the wild in our midst.
The Webbekoms Broek Visitors Centre’s Erik Spiessens told VRT News that “The exhibition chronicles the evolution of the wolf population in the country since 2018”.
“It was in that year that a collar with a tracking device was put on a wolf, called Naya, in this country. This is how we discovered that there were wolves in Limburg and since then generations of wolves have joined them. In the man time were already have the third and fourth generation of wolf cubs”.
Stuffed Roger is the centrepiece
The centrepiece of the exhibition is the stuffed body of Roger, a wolf that was run over and killed by a car in the Limburg village of Opeteren.
“The animal has been stuffed so you can look at a wolf from nearby. The exhibition has been built up around the stuffed wolf. It tells how the wolf came to be here, what are the wolves’ characteristics, where they live and what you need to watch out for and how you can best protect your livestock”, Mr Spiessens told VRT News.