Potential Wolf Attack Reported in Niederanven

Luxembourg's Nature and Forest Agency has announced a potential wolf attack which resulted in the deaths of three sheep in the Niederanven area on Monday.

On Monday 27 April 2020, the Nature and Forest Agency received reports of three dead sheep in a pasture in the Niederanven area; the sheep had been visibly attacked by a predator the previous night or the night before that.

Experts from the Nature and Forest Agency immediately went to the scene to examine the animals for all important criteria (i.e. bite wounds and scuff marks) in order to obtain information about the cause of death. Based on this investigation, the experts could not rule out the wolf as a potential suspect.

In order to confirm this through genetic analyses, the experts took samples from the sheep's wounds in the hope that they would collect enough saliva with usable DNA from the perpetrator. The samples were sent to the Senckenberg Institute in Gelnhausen, Germany, which is the reference laboratory in this area; the results can be expected in a few weeks at the earliest. Already in 2017 and 2018, there had been confirmed evidence of wolf activity in Luxembourg for the first time in over 100 years.

As a reminder, all potential indications of the presence of wolves in the Grand Duchy should be reported to the Nature and Forest Agency immediately via email: wolf@anf.etat.lu.