So, this post is partly a photo post but also about something that did upset me. Some of us are a bit concerned about the increasing population of wolves in our forests. You basically have two or three factions when it’s about wolves. First there are those that are quite happy about the fact that the population is increasing. Then there are concerned people, the so-called wolf-enemies. And finally there are also people like me, aligned somewhere in the middle, thinking that you should at least keep the population of wolves at bay since there is nothing on top of them in the food chain, except maybe cars.

Not only this, I think wolves should not lose their fear against humans. I think if hunters would be allowed to shoot certain numbers, the wolves would never lose their fear against us. If it won’t be allowed in the near future, I am pretty sure that we will soon hear many stories of torn apart humans. I researched so much about wolves in the last two years that I think wolves can be quite dangerous for us humans if certain conditions are met. In fact I could craft a quite detailed post about this subject, including references to studies and cases that would prove my point. But that’s not what my post is about today.

I want to write about keyboard-warriors today. I mean about individuals that do nothing except going to work, sleeping, eating and maybe watching TV the rest of the free time. In other words, individuals that barely leave their own apartment or the city. Individuals that might even form opinions on subjects that don’t affect them at all. In this case I want to write about the pro-wolf faction. Since a while I asked myself if those that want to see a large wolf population in our forests actually go into forests. The only thing these people do is questioning that there is a chance that something bad could happen if you’re alone, seeing a wolves pack in the forest.

I personally thought that the chance might be little because I believe wolves do still avoid us and this is a fact. What I don’t believe is that this is a natural fear. I also don’t believe that all of them will stay shy. This is a complex issue, so, as said under certain conditions I could image that wolves can become dangerous. My problem is that some people even deny the chance. I am following this subject since quite a while and do read the news. In a recent news there was for example this British woman torn apart by wolves in a Greek forest. When I read the news and when I am bored, and I know shouldn’t do this, I sometimes also don’t leave out the comment section. That’s where I found a comment again of a pro-wolf starry-eyed idealist. Literally translated from German, I saw this comment…

To me it is astonishing that she could not safe herself, climbing on a tree at height of head, before she used her phone to call her family.

I could translate the whole comment but believe me it is so much nonsense and it would just extend my article. I could even add a couple of other stupid comments but I am fairly aware that almost all news comments are stupid anyway, and apart from that I just want to make a point here with an example. My point is that some people really don’t have an idea what they are talking about, and this is not even related to the wolf issue alone. My problem is that we live in a world full of idealism. In the comment you see, the person thinks the problem is not that someone was turn apart by wolves, the issue is that she did not get the idea to safe herself on a tree before she notified her family to call the authorities. Do you see the reversal? Yes, this is just a strange and stupid internet comment, and I shouldn’t be upset, but my point and experience is that this is exactly how wolf-supporter argue, even in interviews. But now let’s see how a European forest looks like…

Can someone tell me which tree I should choose in this photo in case I would be attacked by a pack of wolves at this exact point? Right, since most German forest for example look like the one in the photo (shot in Bad Oldesloe), you don’t have a lot of options to find a tree that you could climb up. This might be different in a softwood forest, but nope, in most other forests you won’t get a chance to find a safe spot on a tree because branches start at the height of 5 or 10 meters, everything below is just a straight big tree trunk. We have it to do with blind idealism here, pushing an agenda, saying the problem is the person that does enter a forest and yes you find comments like “It’s all your own fault if you enter a forest” as well under the wolf attack news…

The exact same blind idealism is used by our “Green” ecofascists. The wolf was always there, we humans took their habitat, thus, we should let them reproduce like rats. The issue here in Germany is that you don’t have large nature areas like in Canada or the USA for example, we have small forests between villages and cities, and you can get through them in no time. That means it’ll be hard to ignore the wolves if no other predator (hunters) keep them at bay. Our forests are like small parks, small preserve areas with paths that you can hike. Further, we don’t have a loose gun control law. You can’t just say “I take a gun with me, just in case” if you go for a hike. We had flocks of sheep between these areas, without fences, that’s not possible anymore because of the wolf attacks. It’s a matter of time until humans get attacked as well. Even experts do already warn that out wolf population is reproducing too fast.

Again, I don’t think we should wipe all the wolves out. I find it good too that they are back. But I think this will be a disaster if the population will not be kept in bay. I am somewhere in the middle, I think it’s good to have them back, but I don’t think that we should just watch. Large wolf populations are not compatible with a densely populated country like Germany. I am just against the extremes like the people saying “Well, you’re an idiot if you go into a forest with wolves, it’s all your fault if you get into a dangerous situation”. Damn, grown up in Germany, the danger was not alway there unless you count wild boars in (which can be dangerous as well). So, if we don’t control the population, I do want at least the right to carry a weapon, it’s that easy. I think the hardcore faction of the wolf supporters is insane or naive. As said, I believe they are sitting at home, have never seen a forest and it’s beauty from the inside, which makes it easy to say “I don’t care if there are several wolf packs in this tiny forest”. These people are in my opinion totally nuts extremists, they are armchair idealists.