How many wolves are there in Denmark? The researchers are no longer sure

How many wolves are there in Denmark? Researchers are no longer sure

The monitoring of wolves in Denmark has changed because the population has grown. Therefore, researchers cannot say exactly how many wolves there actually are.

- No one knows for sure how many wolves we have in Denmark, says Peter Sunde, who is a wolf expert and professor at the Department of Ecoscience at Aarhus University. (Photo: © Thomas Traasdahl, Ritzau Scanpix) 47 minutes ago.

Videos of approaching wolves are currently circulating.

In one video, a wolf can be seen trotting in front of a family restaurant north of Nørre Nebel.

Earlier this year, a 14-year-old girl filmed a wolf following her as she was on her way home.

But how many wolves are there really in Denmark?

- No one knows for sure how many wolves we have in Denmark.

That is what Peter Sunde, wolf expert and professor at the Department of Ecoscience at Aarhus University, states.

- We can say how many breeding territories we have, and based on that, we can make an approximate calculation of how many wolves we have in the spring.

The latest assessment of the wolf population showed that at the end of April this year, there were 49 adult wolves. That is, mind you, just before new wolf pups are born. A wolf typically has between five and six pups.

But why can't you give an exact estimate of how many wolves there are?

- Then we would have to closely follow each individual wolf, just like we did in the old days. We simply have too many wolves in relation to the resources we have and the number of DNA samples we can analyze for that to be possible anymore, says Peter Sunde.

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Monitoring of wolves

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Before 2024, researchers closely followed each individual wolf and analyzed all wolf droppings to get an overview of the wolves' movements and numbers. But that task became too large as the number of wolves in Denmark increased.

- Are there wolves coming in across the border from the south? There are also wolves that migrate out again. So we cannot continuously account for it, says Kent Olsen, who is scientific director and senior researcher at the Natural History Museum Aarhus. He is responsible for leading and coordinating the national monitoring of wolves in Denmark.

- Our task is not to monitor every single individual that roams around and say 'now it is there, and now it is there'.

The monitoring is instead done by searching for DNA traces from the wolves and setting up wildlife cameras in the territories where researchers know the wolves have settled.

But far from all the collected samples are sent for DNA analysis, because there are not enough resources or allocated funds for that.

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DNA traces from the wolves

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Researchers analyze DNA samples from the wolves' remains. These can be:

* Feces and urine

* Saliva samples from deer carcasses out in nature.

* Hair from the wolves

* Wolves that are hit by cars, where researchers obtain tissue and blood.

Source: Kent Olsen, scientific director and senior researcher at the Natural History Museum Aarhus.

- I would like to know much more, and I would like to analyze all the samples we collect. But you could say that the question is also whether it is necessary in relation to solving this monitoring task. And the answer is no. It is actually not necessary at all, says Kent Olsen.

- This focus on where we have established pairs and connecting that, that is the primary thing, and we can actually solve that.

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