Wolves Are Being Shot With Paintballs In The Netherlands For All The Right Reasons

A pack of wolves located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park is now being targeted by rangers. They will be shooting the wolves, but they won’t be hurting them permanently. Rather than shooting them with regular guns, they will be targeting them with paintballs.

Local authorities in the area have come up with this unique solution as a way to protect both people visiting the park and the wolves from danger. It seems as if those wolves have become more and more comfortable being around humans, as you can see in this video:

De @faunabeschermin heeft aangifte gedaan tegen directie @HogeVeluwe wegens het verzaken van haar zorgplicht jegens de onder haar verantwoordelijkheid vallende wolven. Nergens werden wolven zo tam zonder bijvoeren @Meldpunt144 @POL_Gelderland 🐺📯 pic.twitter.com/UX2LOHVvKw

— DFB Gelderland (@fb_provGLD) October 26, 2022

Generally speaking, wolves do not like to get close to humans and they will stay far away. It is even rare to spot one, but wolves in this national park are getting closer and closer to the people that are visiting and no one knows why.

Those who take care of the park have even been accused by a local animal protection association of feeding the wolves.

According to that organization: “If the Hoge Veluwe houses a wolf population that behaves significantly differently from all other wolves in the Netherlands and neighboring countries, then there is a very suspicious situation.”

Seger Emmanuel baron van Voorst tot Voorst is the director of the national park and he is denying that they have been feeding the wolves. He spoke with DutchNews, saying that the wolves should be removed from a protected status so more effective means could be used to control them.

The idea to use paintball guns to frighten the wolves without hurting them permanently is a unique solution. Park rangers will be the ones responsible for using paintball guns to encourage the wolves to stay away from humans at the park.

Since they will be shooting them with paintballs, any wolves that have already been targeted will be easily spotted.

Hoge Veluwe has also said that the wolf population is impacting other species, including mouflons, a type of wild sheep. As a grazer, those sheep add something unique to the park but if the wolves are killing them, other species could be impacted.

Nobody is sure if the use of paintballs will be successful in frightening the wolves and keeping them away from people. Considering the fact that more and more wolf cubs continue to be born at the national park, it’s not likely a problem that is going to disappear on its own.