It is the middle of the night when farmer Asger Lauridsen wakes to the sound of his cows bellowing in the field. He immediately knows what it means: the wolf has returned.
Pulling on his boots, Lauridsen grabs a flashlight and rushes outside. Out in the field, he sees the wolf chasing the cattle. He manages to scare it off, but this is far from the first encounter at his organic farm close to Oksbøl, Denmark.
“I don’t sleep well anymore. I keep the window open so I can hear if they come at night and be outside within a minute,” he said.
New EU Status Sparks Debate
The EU has decided to change the legal status of the wolf from “strictly protected” to “protected.” The amendment to the Bern Convention came into force on 7 March this year, while the corresponding change in EU legislation was adopted on 14 July 2025. This means that within 18 months, member states must adapt their national regulations to the new protection status. The decision comes against the backdrop of a significant increase in Europe’s wolf population. Over the past decade, the number of wolves has nearly doubled, from 11.000 in 2012 to over 20.000 in 2023.
Countries will have therefore greater flexibility in wolf management. In specific cases, they were even granted the option to permit hunting or controlled culling if deemed necessary. At the same time, the number of livestock attacks has risen sharply: wolves are estimated to kill more than 65.000 farm animals in the EU every year.
Michael Carlsen, biologist and representative from Animal Protection Denmark, thinks that this shift is premature. For him, the status change of the wolf on the European level comes too early, given that Denmark hasn’t reached a favorable conservation status yet. “When you change their status, you make it a little easier to reach the point where wolves may be culled,” he explained.
He and his colleagues argue that such a change should be postponed until the wolf population is more secure.“Nature and the organisms within it have a justification in themselves, but the wolf also plays a positive role in its environment. Red deer face little natural mortality, but when wolves hunt them, they leave carcasses behind. That is worth its weight in gold for nature,” Michael Carlsen pointed out.
Asger Lauridsen sees the presence of wolves differently.“I don’t believe wolves belong here on the same terms as humans”, Lauridsen said and added “I think they should be regulated, if it gets into conflict with our livestock.”
Oksbøl Residents Train to Guard Against Wolves
The Danish government has introduced a wolf action plan, which includes the creation of local patrols and the option of regulating the wolf population if so-called “problem wolves” pose a threat to the community.
To explore ways of tackling the challenges wolves pose in the area, the government reached out to the local citizens’ and business association based in Oksbølr, often referred to as the country’s “wolf capital”.
“It’s about creating a sense of safety in the town, because it is a very real problem,” said Henrik Vej Kastrupsen, chairman of the local citizens’ and business association.
As a result, a team of local volunteers has now been established. Their primary task will be to monitor wolf activity and scare the animals away if they come too close to inhabited areas. Training for the volunteers is currently underway, and the initiative is expected to be fully operational by November 1 this year, according to Vej Kastrupsen.
“As long as it’s about just scaring wolves away, that is perfectly fine. When humans are perceived as dangerous, the wolf keeps its distance. If humans stop being perceived as threatening, then the wolf comes closer. And it doesn’t hurt to remind them to keep a bit more distance” said Carlsen.
Carlsen believes wolves should have more room in Danish nature and opposes the idea of shooting them unless they are sick or pose a direct threat. Instead, he sees value in non-lethal methods of managing their presence. However, farmer Lauridsen is not impressed.
“I think it’s nonsense. They may drive the wolf out of Oksbøl, but it doesn’t really make a difference for our problem, which is livestock. I doubt they’ll get any wolves shot with the way they’ve planned it,“ Lauridsen said. Should a situation escalate, the patrols cannot act directly but must call in licensed hunters, who alone have the authority to shoot the wolves, Henrik Vej Kastrupsen points out.
“This EU change means we don’t have to keep chasing the same wolf out of town, only for it to return,” he explained further, ”with the new EU regulation, we can actually act, with the consequence that the wolf may be shot.”
Fear in the Fields
Out in the field, the cows are sniffing and licking one of Asger Lauridsen’s calves. As he comes closer, he sees blood running down the calf’s leg. Bite marks on the thigh and back. DNA samples, collected by the Danish Nature Agency, confirmed that it was the wolf that had struck during the night. For Lauridsen, the greatest unease lies in never knowing what awaits him when he checks on his animals, whether one of them has been attacked.
“Every day you worry about whether there’s been another attack,” Lauridsen said.
Even though livestock are sometimes attacked, studies show that wolf attacks on humans are extremely rare, with no fatal incidents recorded in the 21st century. Still, wolves are often perceived as a threat, and many people remain fearful of them.
“The risk the wolf poses is practically zero. You are at a level where the risk of being struck by lightning is greater. It is far, far more dangerous to take your children out into traffic to take a trip to the beach, to let them go horseback riding, to have a dog, and so on” Carlsen said.
He does, however, acknowledge that for those managing livestock, the challenges are very real, but tangible.“It is easier to protect livestock from wolves than to manage people’s fear. Fencing or guard dogs may seem troublesome, but they are relatively simple solutions. On the other hand, it doesn’t help to tell people there is nothing to fear. That requires some dialogue,” Carlsen said.
Henrik Vej Kastrupsen finds himself at the very centre of Denmark’s wolf debate, and often hears from citizens who have changed their behaviour because they are scared of the wolves. “Some people have stopped walking their dogs in the evening, some always carry a knife and some have stopped running in the forest and stopped letting their children play in the forest without supervision,” he explained.
For Michael Carlsen one of the biggest misconceptions of wolves is that they are dangerous to humans, but that does not mean that other people’s fear of them should be taken lightly. “The fear of wolves should absolutely not be neglected in any way. That is never the way to handle the situation,” he stressed. When asked what to do, he says dialogue between politicians and locals is the way forward, aiming to ease people’s anxiety about the predators.
Wolf attacks and their presence on Asger Lauridsen’s farm have led him to install wolf-proof fencing and deterrent lights meant to scare the predators away. Yet, despite both reinforced fencing and flashing lights, the wolf has twice managed to get inside the enclosure to chase his cattle. In total, Lauridsen has experienced six incidents of wolves pursuing his livestock.
But he does not believe that fencing and deterrent systems are enough to deal with problem wolves. In his view, much more far-reaching measures are needed. “The new law is too weak. If a wolf attacks or approaches our livestock, we should be allowed to act immediately, not ask for permission first,” Lauridsen said.
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