Although hunting is a good way to control the wolf population, and it is being done, livestock farmers must also carry out preventative work and it is desirable to improve the security measures being used. One must learn to coexist with wolves, experts assessed on the Latvijas Radio programme "Kā labāk dzīvot".
This year in Latvia, there have been 25 confirmed cases of wolf attacks, with a significant number of livestock killed – 103 sheep. For comparison, last year a total of 52 cases were recorded, with 129 sheep killed. It is, however, too early to draw conclusions, as wolf attacks most often occur in August and September, noted Valters Lūsis, Head of the Hunting Division of the State Forest Service.
"Analysing the information, we can see that the majority, 16 cases, are from Cēsis municipality, and Smiltene municipality is right next to it, so this is not systemic, but rather a single problematic area. In other municipalities in Latvia, there are only isolated cases," he assessed.
At the same time, V. Lūsis pointed out that increasing the number of wolves to be hunted in these specific municipalities would not solve the overall problem, as wolves do not inhabit just one municipality, but areas of up to 100 thousand hectares. V. Lūsis pointed out that increasing the number of wolves to be hunted in these specific municipalities would not solve the overall problem, as wolves do not inhabit just one municipality, but areas of up to 100 thousand hectares. (...)