On November 13th, 2021, a meeting was held with 16 people as part of hunter training in Irdning-Donnersbachtal. In addition to the young hunters, the responsible trainers, who also have leadership roles in the hunting community, were also present.
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The distribution maps of wolves throughout Europe and Austria were shown ( source ) and their further spread was discussed. The argument “wolves are abandoned” could be contradicted. With migration distances of 1000 km or more, it has been shown that a wolf can appear anywhere in Austria. The event also showed that more information about the wolf is needed.
In principle, it was agreed that management for large carnivores will be necessary in the future. Hunters are often the first to know about the presence of a predator when there is a change in the behavior of the game - provided they can assess how game behaves in the presence of a large predator. Sightings of large predators and sometimes recordings from wildlife cameras are often helpful.
Our discussion showed that young hunters often do not know how to behave in the presence of large predators.
It was also discussed why an observation should be reported, why it is important that it be reported and who benefits from it. Arguments in favor of reporting are that the information helps livestock farmers and that compensation payments are only made if there is evidence of a large predator, etc.
Since a large proportion of the young hunters are also farmers, special attention was paid to herd protection for farm animals. At the moment there are almost only migrants in Austria who hardly cause any problems for farm animals. Should a wolf pack become resident, the situation must be reassessed to see what this means for the game's use of space, especially in winter.
It has been shown that such events with the affected stakeholders are important in order to correct false information circulating and replace it with technically correct information. In addition, discussions at eye level can dispel prejudices and partially create an understanding of the large predators.
