Livestock

Livestock protection works: a case study from Brandenburg

Brandenburg, along with Saxony, are the states with the largest wolf density in Germany. At the moment, there are 49 wolf territories in Brandenburg and 27 in Saxony. As a result, livestock depredation by wolves was a significant problem due to wolf attacks on livestock.

In Brandenburg, a large amount of money was invested into livestock protection in the recent years – just in 2019, almost a million euros, and the year before around 800.000 €. This investment is clearly paying off. In the past two years, not a single wolf successfully overcame the protection measures, which would lead to its removal. Even though the number of packs and territories increased, the number of livestock attacks remained alomst the same from 2018 to 2019.

This shows that livestock depredation remains a problem, but livestock is an effective measure for prevention.

The most common livestock protection measures include electric fences, livestock guarding dogs, shepherds and fladry. Livestock protection is especially efficient when more measures are used at the same time, such as livestock guarding dogs and electric fences.

Protective measures are effective ways of reducing livestock depredation by large carnivores and achieving coexistence. Following its success, the European Wilderness Society is currently preparing a LIFE project. The project will focus on promoting livestock protection in the predominantly German-speaking Alps. By providing farmers with resources and support to implement livestock protection, the aim is to achieve better human-wolf coexistence in the area.

4 thoughts on “Livestock protection works: a case study from Brandenburg

  • Dear Andrius,

    thank you for pointing this mistake. Apparently we used the numbers from the “Lausitzer Rundschau” without cross-checking it with the official numbers. We corrected the posting accordingly.

  • Hello. How you get the numbers that showing livestock depredation decreasing? Numbers from your source 2018-153, 2019-165
    “Im Jahr 2018 sind bei 153 Vorfällen 401 Nutztiere geschädigt worden und im Jahr 2019 bei 165 Vorfällen 409 Nutztiere.” 20
    https://lfu.brandenburg.de/cms/detail.php/bb1.c.407130.de

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