00:00A third of Michael Stocker's sheep herd was dead after wolves roamed his mountain pasture
00:08in southern Austria.
00:09If the authorities don't act, he says he will stop farming.
00:15I ask myself whether I should continue to be a farmer at all when I see that a third
00:20of my flock of sheep are lying dead around me and have perished miserably.
00:26I wouldn't have a problem if the wolf killed just one sheep, but it kills a lot of them
00:30just for the fun of it.
00:34Last year, wolves killed half a percent of the EU's sheep population.
00:40Thirty years ago, the European Union decided to re-establish wolf packs in areas like the
00:46Alps where they had been extinct for decades.
00:49Now their population has multiplied to 20,000 and Europe is changing course, planning to
00:55lower the protection status, which will make it easier for farmers to cull the animal.
01:01Already now, some regions in Austria and Slovenia allow farmers to shoot wolves that have mauled
01:06a certain number of sheep.
01:08Lowering the carnivore status from strictly protected to protected would mean more culling
01:14and more protest from conservationists.
01:17The wolf has a very, very important role in the whole ecosystem of the forest, of the mountains.
01:25By hunting wild animals like deer, wolves can help control Austria's ever-growing game population,
01:32Meyer says.
01:33These deers eat the trunks of the trees, so we have a lot of damage in our forests and
01:40the wolf just regulates this, you know.
01:44However, if wolves further multiply in Austria's Alps, more mountain farmers are likely to quit.
01:50This means alpine pastures created over thousands of years by grazing sheep and cattle could
01:55cease to exist, which would have far-reaching consequences.
02:00When mountain farmers stop bringing their sheep to pastures, then this alpine landscape
02:05becomes overgrown with trees and many pasture species that are much more endangered than
02:10the wolf lose their habitat.
02:15For now, the wolf is set to stay.
02:17Even a lowered conservation status will not stop Austria's current wolf population from increasing.
02:23Johannes Blechberger, CGTN, Greifenburg, Austria.
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