Authorities estimate that about eighty wolves roamed this year. The animals, which fall under the EU's Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive, are hunted particularly intensively in the western Alpine cantons of Tyrol and Carinthia.
According to authorities, the goal is to protect grazing animals; sometimes wolves come too close to herds and settlements. In Tyrol alone, about 200,000 cattle, sheep, goats, and horses spend the summer months on the high Alpine meadows.
According to inquiries by the Austrian press agency APA among the regional cantons, the number of sheep and goats killed during the past summer season has significantly decreased. So far this year, just under four hundred farm animals have fallen victim to wolves; according to official statistics, there were twice as many the year before. Whether this is connected to the hunting cannot yet be proven, it is said, but it is very plausible.
Six of the nine federal states in Austria have recently lowered the thresholds for shooting problem wolves or have initiated corresponding procedures. Germany has also announced plans to relax criteria for shooting permits.