Wolves in Austria: stable inventory and decline in livestock cracks!

Wolves in Austria: stable inventory and decline in livestock cracks!

Österreich - On June 7, 2025, the “Status report Wolf 2024” was published by the Austria Center Bär, Wolf, Luchs (ÖZ). The report confirms a stable wolf inventory in Austria and documents a significant decline in the damage to farm animals, especially for sheep and goats. In 2024, a total of 102 individual wolves were detected, including a wolf and 13 wolves found dead, which were removed for management reasons. Wolves were detected in all federal states except Vienna, with a total of nine wolf packs, four of which had offspring.

Tyrol and Carinthia listed most of the livestock cracks, but a significant decline can be observed compared to earlier years. According to the report, the implementation of successful protective measures and herd protection concepts shows that wolf management in Austria has made progress. The ÖZ coordinates the monitoring and management of the large -scale predators on a scientific basis and promotes the dialogue between nature conservation and agricultural interests in order to find balanced solutions. 5min.at reports that…

livestock cracks in 2024

The crack numbers of farm animals show a clear trend. In 2024, a total of 304 sheep and goats were killed by wolves, 13 injured and 357 missing. In addition, 25 cattle were killed, while 10 injured and 4 were reported missing. Other farm animals were also affected, including a horse as well as some gatterwild and alpacas. This leads to a total number of 457 killed animals, 26 injured and 416 missing animals. The figures are based on demonstrably known cracking appraisals, whereby the final figures are determined after all applications for compensation in the following year Baer-wolf-luchs.at.

Overview of the cracks from 2009 to 2024

The continuous increase in wolves in Austria correlates with increasing cracks in farm animals. Sheep are the most common victims of wolf attacks, followed by goats. The few attacks on cattle and horses show that young animals are particularly at risk. The crack statistics list different categories: examined cracks, injured animals and exhaustive animals. However, it is noted that the leadership of uniformly chested crack statistics is difficult. In addition, there are compensation based on goodwill for indirect damage or unconfirmed cracks.

recommendations for wolf management

In order to deal with the challenges due to the growing wolf population, recommendations for wolf management in Austria were drawn up between July 2020 and May 2021. These new guidelines that replace the existing recommendations from 2012 have been developed in cooperation with essential interest groups from agriculture, hunting and nature conservation as well as several federal states. The recommendations define the goals and principles of wolf management and describe opportunities for distribution of tasks as well as a uniform framework for damage compensation and prevention. The key points of the document also include the interface between wolf management and herd protection, which is to be regarded as part of this management baer-wolf-luchs.at.

Overall, the latest developments show a positive tendency in dealing with wolf population, but are still facing challenges that require continuous adaptation and careful planning of measures.