The future of Europe's wolf population is under scrutiny by the European Commission after a surge in wolf attacks on livestock across numerous countries.
The European Commission has asked communities, scientists and interested parties to submit proposals and up-to-date data on wolf populations by Friday week.
A resolution adopted by the European Parliament late last year stated there were 680 farm animals killed by wolves in Austria in 2021, but in France in 2020, there were 12,000 livestock killed. In Germany, nearly 4,000 were killed.
The resolution also noted attacks on humans.
The wolf population has been growing in Europe since conservation and reintroduction programmes were introduced, as well as legal protection for the animals under the Habitats Directive.
Figures cited in that European Parliament resolution last November put wolf numbers at 10,000 in 2012, 17,000 in 2018, and 19,000 in 2022, and it was stated that the wolf population had the potential to grow 30% per year.
In its call for submissions, the European Commission said: "The return of the wolf to EU regions where it has been absent for a long time is increasingly leading to conflicts with local farming and hunting communities, especially where measures to prevent attacks on livestock are not widely implemented."
The subject is one the Commission President has personal experience of, as in September last year, Ursula von der Leyen’s 30-year-old pony named Dolly was killed by a wolf.
The wolf had gained access to a secure compound at her home in Burgdorf in the Lower Saxony region of Germany.
As the commission review was announced last week, she said countries should take action to deal with wolf packs, even though they are protected species.
"The concentration of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger for livestock and potentially also for humans," she said.
"I urge local and national authorities to take action where necessary. Indeed, current EU legislation already enables them to do so."
There have been a number of past calls for the reintroduction of wolves in Ireland, including by the Irish Wildlife Trust and the Green Party.
Party leader Eamon Ryan made the call in the Dáil while in opposition in 2019.
However, a Green Party spokesperson said there are no current Government or departmental plans or proposals to reintroduce wolves to Ireland.
The reintroduction of wolves is not currently a Green Party policy.
For farmers, especially those that work in remote and mountainous parts of the country, the idea of reintroducing wolves would be "crazy", according to Vincent Roddy of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association.
"I know there is a push to use wolves to manage deer, but if you put wolves on a hill, you're making a decision to take cattle and sheep off, because wolves are not going to go for deer when there is easier prey," he said.
Mr Roddy also said that the reintroduced wolf population would quickly explode, as they themselves would have no predator to control them. "It’s a crazy idea," he said.
