Wolves vs. farmers: An ongoing battle in Spain

DW (English)

Castile and Leon is home to western Europe’s largest wolf population and the wolves are putting livestock at risk. Farmers want wolf culling but EU rules on hunting them are stringent.

Transcript

00:00The Iberian wolf is a clever animal.

00:05They know that the sheep and calves here in northwestern Spain are easy prey.

00:17You get up in the morning, want to check on your herd and see this.

00:23Felipe Corazal is a livestock farmer here in northern Spain.

00:27An average of 15 farm animals are killed by wolves in this region every day.

00:32For farmers, it's a heavy blow, even though the regional government pays compensation for the animals.

00:39For me this is a huge loss, not so much the sheep killed by the wolf,

00:43but also what comes afterward, the miscarriages, the stressed herd.

00:49Felipe owns 1,200 sheep. He's lost more to wolves than he can count.

00:54That's why the predators were once hunted down in this part of Spain,

00:58but three years ago wolf hunting became illegal across the country.

01:03The wolf doesn't have to disappear completely, but it has to be held in check.

01:08If we want our herds to graze and help prevent forest fires,

01:12if we want there to be shepherds in our villages,

01:16then we have to keep the wolves under control.

01:22The Castile and León region is home to about 1,800 wolves.

01:27Some areas have the highest population density in all of Western Europe.

01:32Even so, the Iberian wolf is under protection in Spain.

01:39Tomas Llanes is a wolf activist.

01:45He works at a wolf park in Sierra de la Culebra

01:48and explains to visitors why he believes wolves need to be protected.

01:53The wolf plays a fundamental role in the ecosystem.

01:58It hunts the weak and vulnerable prey.

02:01That makes it something like a veterinarian of the forest,

02:05helping to prevent the spread of disease.

02:10Wolves no longer have any natural predators here.

02:13The wild bears that once lived here are long gone.

02:18Although they have no natural predators, wolf packs control their own numbers.

02:23Only the alpha pair has offspring, not the entire pack.

02:27And the extent to which they reproduce also depends on the food supply.

02:34José Vicente Pérez says there's more than enough food here.

02:38He's a hunter and has killed wolves before.

02:42Look, wolf tracks. A wolf was here.

02:48And there's another, a very fresh one.

02:56We used to hunt everything. You didn't need a permit.

03:00And because so many sheep were getting killed,

03:03we had to go to the forest to hunt.

03:06Now that they've banned that,

03:08we have to live with more and more livestock being killed.

03:16The regional government is at an impasse.

03:19Even though there are plenty of wolves in this area,

03:22they're listed as an endangered species in all of Spain.

03:26Wolf hunting is banned and local authorities have banned it.

03:30The conflict is escalating.

03:32The wolf population will eventually stabilise

03:35when all of the remaining land and territory is occupied.

03:38But then large-scale livestock farming will no longer be possible here.

03:43But livestock farming is an important source of income in this part of Spain.

03:48Felipe, a sheep farmer, has already started his business.

03:51He's been in charge of the sheep farm since the beginning of the pandemic.

03:56If it gets any worse, I'll look for something else,

03:59move to the city, work as a street sweeper, or whatever.

04:04I'm serious.

04:09If the farmers give up their flocks, there will be fewer sheep.

04:13And if they don't give up their flocks,

04:15there will be fewer sheep in the future.

04:19If the farmers give up their flocks,

04:22there will be fewer sheep and less prey.

04:25The wolf population would decline.

04:28It would diffuse the conflict, but at a cost.

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