Dossier
Wolves
After an absence of approximately 150 years, the wolf has re-established itself in the Netherlands. This dossier provides you with the latest news, background information and results of Wageningen University & Research on wolves in the Netherlands.
Wageningen University & Research monitors the return of the wolf through DNA research. Faeces that are found are tested for DNA in our labs, to determine if they are wolf-faeces, and if so, from which specific animal. To this end, we collaborate with the German research institute Senckenberg though the CEwolf-consortium. This information allows provincial governments to take substantiated decisions on their policies regarding the wolf. Most wolves in the Netherlands lead a roaming existence, but the first female wolf has now settled on the Veluwe.
Fauna consultants also extract DNA from sheep suspected to have been slain by a wolf. Our research reveals whether a wolf is indeed the predator responsible for the sheep’s death within a month: the BIJ12 website documents these instances and the DNA results (only in Dutch). Each quarter a genetic profile is generates for these cases, to enable individual identification.
This is how our research works
News about wolves
Publications about wolves
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Bridging the gap between science, policy and stakeholders : Towards sustainable wolf–livestock coexistence in human-dominated landscapes
People and Nature (2025) - ISSN 2575-8314 -
Influence of Human Hunting Strategies and Large Carnivore Presence on Population Dynamics of European Facultative Scavengers
Ecology and Evolution (2024), Volume: 14, Issue: 11 - ISSN 2045-7758 -
Wild Conversations: Comparing Media Narratives on Comeback Species in Europe Through Computational Text Analysis
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The production-protection nexus : How political-economic processes influence prospects for transformative change in human-wildlife interactions
Global Environmental Change (2023), Volume: 82 - ISSN 0959-3780 -
Effectiveness of behaviour-based interventions in reducing livestock depredation by wolves (Canis lupus)
Lutra (2023), Volume: 66, Issue: 1 - ISSN 0024-7634 - p. 13-38. -
Context-dependent responses of naïve ungulates to wolf-sound playback in a human-dominated landscape
Animal Behaviour (2022), Volume: 185 - ISSN 0003-3472 - p. 9-20. -
De wolf terug in Nederland : Een factfinding study
Wageningen: Wageningen Environmental Research (Rapport / Wageningen Environmental Research 3107) -
The return of wolves to the Netherlands : a fact-finding study
Wageningen: Wageningen Environmental Research (Report / Wageningen Environmental Research 3107) - ISBN: 9789464478006 -
Living with Conflicts over Wolves. The Case of Redes Natural Park
Society & Natural Resources (2021), Volume: 34, Issue: 1 - ISSN 0894-1920 - p. 82-98. -
Genetic support for the current discrete conservation unit of the Central European wolf population
Wildlife Biology (2021), Volume: 2021, Issue: 2 - ISSN 0909-6396