The State Forest Service has compiled recommendations for preventative measures that can help prevent attacks by wolves and other large predators on livestock. These recommendations take into account guidelines for investigating large predator attacks developed by LVMI Silava, the successful experience of Estonian colleagues, and shortcomings in protection measures observed during the service's on-site inspections.
Experts from the Hunting Department of the State Forest Service emphasise that no single preventative measure offers a complete guarantee of safety, which is why it is valuable to combine several methods. The most effective set of protection measures is considered to be a properly installed and maintained electric fence combined with guard dogs that live with the herd at all times. Metal mesh fencing supplemented with two electric fence wires also shows high efficiency.
As of 23 October 2023, the State Forest Service has recorded 88 wolf attacks this year, resulting in harm to 479 farm animals – sheep, goats, dogs, and cattle. Upon inspecting the sites, service specialists found that in a number of cases, preventative measures were inadequate. Such cases include fencing pastures with only one or two electric fence wires (which does not protect against predators), only partially fencing pastures (failing to install fences along rivers or ditches), or finding damage in existing fences through which predators can enter.
In the 2023/2024 wolf hunting season, 209 wolves had been culled by 23 October 2023, with the highest numbers in the Dienvidkurzeme, Centrālvidzeme, and Ziemeļvidzeme forest districts. In Latvia, the wolf is a specially protected, limited-use species that may only be hunted in strictly defined volumes to maintain a favourable wolf population status. For this hunting season, the State Forest Service has set a permissible wolf cull limit of 300 animals, which is the maximum permissible cull limit defined in the wolf species protection plan.
More information on preventative measures is available in the Hunting section of the State Forest Service website.