Hounding music, bright full moon, cold, nippy winds and what comes to the mind? Wolves, what else? There’s this sublime sort of horror and scare associated with wolves that one doesn’t quite find attuned to any other feral creature. Isn’t it? With their large mouths, pointy noses, vicious jaw-lines and scary eyes, wolves are terror incarnate. But all’s not been well with one of the most fascinating preys on earth here in Europe.
It’s said that Belgium had lost all its wolves in the course of the last several years. In fact, leave Belgium aside and you’d run into a startling fact. It is widely believed that at the start of the 20th century, wolves had completely disappeared from all of Western Europe. Once a fundamental element of natural European heritage, the disappearance of wolves, evidently believed to have caused a great deal of public menace and proving to be a scourge for farmers was a sad phenomenon.
Not only did wolves disappear from all of Western Europe but they went astray from all of England, believed to have followed migrating herds of deer, boar and other animals. But a recent piece of news surfacing from Belgium carried a positive bit of news surrounding wolves and fans of this magnificent wild creature. It seems that finally, after decades worth of wait, a wolf was sighted in Belgium, much to the surprise of the common public and wildlife enthusiasts.
It’s been shared that the wild wolf, that had been wearing an electronic tracker, travelled all the way into Belgium from Germany. In a piece of news that is gaining a lot of mileage, for the sheer rarity of its occurrence- the wild wolf was spotted in the Northern Belgian region of Flanders. It’s said that the animal covered a whopping journey of 310 miles across ten days. Campaigners across Belgium have called the wolf’s sighting as a welcome move and are calling out to the government to encourage the return of the wolf. Back in 2011, there was some camera footage that picked up a sighting of what was believed to be a wolf in the Ardennes region in Southern Belgium but the instance was never quite confirmed. This particular incident, however, is firmly evident of the great animal’s comeback. Can Belgium expect more wolves to ‘repatriate’ in 2018 and beyond?