Berlin (dpa) – A study shows that since the first wolves immigrated to Germany at least 20 years ago, the species has spread rapidly. “The survival rate of wolf populations in Germany is very high compared to other regions – in fact they were among the highest in the world,” says Stephanie Kramer-Schaud of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW). Berlin.
This assessment is based on long-term data provided by the Federal Documentation and Advisory Center on Wolves (DBBW) in Görlitz. According to a study published in the journal Wildlife Biology, the average annual survival rate of young wolves over two decades of reintroduction was 75 percent, while it was as high as 88 percent for adults of the species. Leibniz-IZW says this rate is higher than anywhere else in the world.
Legal protection as a key factor
According to previous analyses, the highest recorded survival rates for adult wolves in other non-hunted populations were 78 percent in the United States and 82 percent in the alpine regions of Europe. The research team says the main reason for the high rate in Germany is the large number of suitable habitats. “Stronger legal protection has been a contributing factor here as well,” Kramer-Schaudt says, but it won’t last forever, she says, as survival rates can be expected to drop once an area reaches its habitat capacity. .