Flemish minister Jo Brouns is providing extra resources to Limburg towns to install more wolf-proof fencing, following the deaths of goats and ponies this week
More people and resources are being provided to rural residents in Limburg following the death of 11 ponies this week. The ponies were bitten to death by wolves.
Holders of cattle, sheep and other livestock have long complained about the return of the wolf to Flanders. A wolf made Flanders her home in 2018, some 150 years after the wolf disappeared from the region. It was seen as a win for biodiversity efforts to make Flanders liveable for wildlife. But the wolf population has grown and with it the danger to easy prey.
This week the issue hit the headlines again as 11 ponies and three goats in the Oudsbergen and Peer municipalities were killed by wolves. There are currently four adults and at least seven pups living in the Limburg area – a pair and two solo wolves.
The pastures surrounded by wolf-proof fencing have never seen an attack
Diemer Vercayie of the Wolf Fencing Team
“The relationship between humans and animals evokes a great deal of emotion,” said Jo Brouns, Flemish minister for the environment and agriculture. “So we are implementing some quick-win measures now.”
Brouns held an emergency meeting this week with 27 mayors in the north of Limburg, as well as the Nature and Forest Agency, the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) and the Wolf Fencing Team. Wolf-proof fencing is the single best preventative measure to protect livestock and pets from wolves, according to experts.
The Wolf Fencing Team was formed by nature conservancy organisations a year after the return of the wolf. It is a volunteer organisation that places wolf-proof fencing and also teaches residents how to do so.
“We are enormously grateful to these 300 volunteers,” said Brouns. “Our goal is to respond to all requests for wolf-proof fencing within a week by increasing resources and supporting local municipalities. We are also training professional fence contractors to install such fencing.”
The Wolf Fencing Team has placed enclosures on 700 properties so far. “The pastures surrounded by this fencing have never seen an attack,” says Diemer Vercayie of the Wolf Fencing Team. “This shows that it is possible to live together with the wolf – if we focus on prevention.”
While the primary goal is to protect domestic animals, the government and conservationists also want to discourage residents from taking more drastic measures. In 2019, the first wolf to return to Flanders – named Naya – disappeared, along with her pups. Experts believe they were killed by a hunter.