Wolves are reconquering Europe. Can people learn to live with them?

A version of this story appeared in Science, Vol 392, Issue 6804.Download PDF

Progress 1.0x 00:00 20:36 1.0x Last summer, a woman walking in a nature park near Utrecht, Netherlands, saw what she thought was a big, playful dog hurtling toward her two young boys in the distance. Seconds later, she heard her older son, age 6, screaming loudly. The animal was dragging him into the woods; two other adults who happened to be nearby beat it with sticks to drive it off. The boy was taken to a hospital, with bite marks and nail scratches on his side and chest. His attacker was not a dog, but a wolf. DNA found on the boy’s bloody T-shirt confirmed the culprit was Bram, the Netherlands’s most infamous wolf. He had bitten a woman in the leg 2 months earlier. The summer before, he had knocked over a child and was suspected of snapping at another. Before that, he had shown an unusual interest in dogs. After Bram’s first attacks, wolf experts recommended interventions, including trying to capture and fit him with a tracking collar, or shooting him with paintballs to encourage him to avoid people. But animal rights groups sued, and no action was taken. In May 2025, after Bram bit the woman, Utrecht province issued a permit to shoot him, but animal rights activists again sued to block it. A judge had ruled against them—clearing the way for Bram to be killed—just days before he attacked the young boy. The T-shirt of a boy attacked by a wolf in the Netherlands in 2025 yielded DNA from Bram, a wolf involved in several previous attacks.Marielle van Uitert The new incident fueled an already polarized debate about the burgeoning wolf population in the Netherlands.

Wolf attacks on people are very rare—most wolves fear and shun humans—but wolves are also killing an increasing number of sheep, and Dutch farmers have demanded control measures. Some politicians have said Western Europe’s most densely populated country should simply be declared a “wolf-free zone.” Wolf scientists are caught in the middle, criticized both by antiwolf campaigners and by animal rights activists who object to measures such as tracking collars. Some researchers have received death threats. Similar debates have played out across Europe. Thanks to strict legal protections, the native gray wolf (Canis lupus) has made a dramatic comeback since 2000, especially in Western Europe, where it was exterminated in the 19th century. That’s “a major conservation achievement,” says Joachim Mergeay, a conservation geneticist at the Research Institute for Nature and Forest in Belgium. But the growing, sometimes grisly toll on livestock and a handful of attacks on humans have strained the limits of coexistence. Some citizens have taken matters in their own hands: In Italy’s Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park, 18 wolves were found dead in late April, along with traces of bait poisoned with pesticides. Last year, the European Commission loosened protections, allowing more hunting of the animals. Scientists have objected, saying genetic evidence shows their populations are not as robust as they seem and that protecting livestock with electric fences and guardian dogs is more effective than culling. Wolves’ European success story now hinges on the mindset of societies that haven’t seen these predators for a century and a half, says biologist Pepijn T’Hooft, who leads WWF–Belgium’s wolf program. “If you want to keep this comeback alive,” he says, “you need to look not at the number of wolves per country, but at the support for them.” Wolves have a deep hold on the human psyche. Archaeological and genetic evidence suggests people tamed an ancestor of modern wolves at least 11,000 years ago, giving rise to today’s dogs. Still, wolves remained a threat to humans and especially their livestock. Folk traditions reflect this ambivalent relationship. Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome, was said to be suckled by a wolf, but the Big Bad Wolf is a familiar character in fairy tales.

Deforestation, official eradication programs, and increased hunting of deer, the wolf’s main prey, had eliminated the species from most of Western Europe by the mid-1800s. Small populations hung on in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, despite elimination efforts that continued into the 1970s. Laws such as the 1979 Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, also known as the Bern Convention, strengthened wolves’ protection across Europe and gave the species a new chance. Wolves from western Russia and Finland filtered into Sweden and Norway in the 1980s, establishing a handful of packs there. Central Europe saw the most dramatic increase. In the late 1990s, lone wolves from western Poland were occasionally spotted in eastern Germany. By 1999, a pair had settled in a military training area near the Polish-German border, and the first pups were born in 2000. A stunning recovery Exterminated from Western Europe in the 19th century, wolves have made an impressive comeback the past quarter-century. Scientists have closely monitored the population as it spread across northern Germany and into Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium—some of the most densely populated regions in Europe. (Wolf territories can host a single wolf, a pair, or a pack, which is a pair and its offspring. Years are wolf “monitoring years,” which typically run from 1 May until 30 April the next year.) Drag the slider or press the play button to see the change in wolf territories over time. Alternative text: The interactive map below shows wolf territories in Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxumbourg as a timelapse from Monitoring year 2000 to Monitoring year 2024. In 2000 there is a single territory on Germany's eastern border with Poland. Over the years more territories appear, gradually spreading west, while also covering more of northeast Germany. In 2010, there are 19 wolf territories across Germany, mostly clustered near the Polish border but with some venturing north and west. In 2018, a few wolf territories appear in Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

By 2024, there are 294 territories across the region, with the largest concentration still in northeast Germany. Monitoring year 2000 Human population per km2 Rural 0 people 1 300 Urban 301–1500 1501+ Wolf territory The map shows wolf territories of 200 square kilometers (km²) each for the Central European population. Actual territory sizes range from 50 to 500 km². Comparable data for Czechia, Poland, and Austria, where part of this population lives, were not available. Human population density categories use Copernicus’s population thresholds for degree of urbanization. (Graphic) V. Penney/Science; (Data) BIJ12; Copernicus Global Human Settlement 1km Population Grid layers for 2000, ’10, ’15, ’25 from M. Pesaresi et al., International Journal of Digital Earth, 17(1); DBBW Project; Flemish Research Institute for Nature and Forest; Natural History Aarhus; Walloon Public Service Since then, the population has grown to roughly 2000 wolves across eastern and northern Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium, with a few in the Czech Republic and Austria as well (see graphic, above). Protected species status also allowed the remnant populations in Italy and the Iberian Peninsula to recover, and Italian wolves spread into Austria, Switzerland, and southern France. (A long-isolated population in southern Spain went extinct in 2017, however.) The shy, mostly nocturnal predators are hard to track and count. Scientists and conservation officials monitor them with camera traps, genetic analysis of hair and scat, and even microphones that can pick up the characteristic yaps of pups. Footprints and animals killed on roads—a main cause of wolf deaths—provide additional clues.

Wolves are territorial, so many census efforts count established territories, which can range from 50 square kilometers—a bit smaller than Manhattan—to more than 1000 square kilometers. A territory can host a single wolf, a pair, or a pack—a pair and its young, amounting to between four and 10 animals. (Cubs can remain in their pack for up to 2 years, helping raise younger siblings.) All told, scientists estimate 23,000 wolves now roam in EU member states, up from about 12,000 in 2012. “Twenty-five years ago, I could not have imagined having wolves in every country on the European mainland,” Mergeay says. “We have more wolves in Europe than in the United States.” A species divided Wolves now live in every country in continental Europe, but scientists caution that their recovery is still tenuous. Genetic studies show there are up to nine distinct populations with little mingling, and most are below the size considered necessary for long-term survival. The mapped range shows areas where wolf presence is considered permanent as of 2023, except for Italy, which reported data from one intensive monitoring period from 2020–21. (Graphic) V. Penney/Science; (Data) Large Carnivores Initiative for Europe wolf distribution map (2017–22/23) In March, a woman in a busy shopping area of Hamburg, Germany, saw what she thought was a dog running against a set of glass doors. She tried to open the doors, but the trapped wolf snapped at her and bit her in the face before escaping. It was spotted a few hours later close to the city’s red light district, then again near the convention center. Finally, the animal—a young male—was found trying to swim in the Binnenalster, the lake in Hamburg’s historical center. Officials fished it out and took it to a wildlife sanctuary. Such incidents tend to attract massive media attention, but they are exceedingly rare. Most wolves that cross paths with humans do so accidentally.