Overview
- The Agriculture Ministry’s draft would add wolves to the Federal Hunting Act and allow a regular season from 1 September to 28 February, contingent on cross-territory management plans and a favourable conservation status.
- After an expert confirms a livestock kill by a wolf, shooting could occur without a prior administrative order for six weeks within a 20‑kilometre radius, replacing the current 1,000‑metre rule.
- Hunting authorities could order the killing of individual wolves or entire packs to avert economic damage and permit hunting in designated grazing areas even when the population is in an unfavourable conservation status.
- The plan would remove the wolf paragraph from the Federal Nature Conservation Act and place wolf management under the Agriculture Ministry with Bundesrat involvement, leaving the Environment Ministry largely outside the process.
- Reactions diverge: Brandenburg rejected quota-based hunts while preparing a management plan, scientists and legal experts warn of counterproductive outcomes and EU-law conflicts, and the German Hunting Association welcomes regulation but seeks different seasons and year-round removals for problem wolves.