Study shows: Stable wolf packs kill less

A study that should have had political consequences long ago is making headlines again – this time in the Italian press. Imbert et al. (2016), published in the renowned journal Biological Conservation, clearly demonstrated for Northern Italy: Roaming lone wolves and unstable groups cause far more livestock kills than sedentary, socially stable packs. Ten years later, Germany, Austria and Switzerland still rely on culling, even though science recommends the opposite.

Editorial team Wild beim Wild — 23 February 2026

The study examined in Northern Italy over several years which factors influence wolf feeding behaviour and when wolves resort to livestock.

The result was unambiguous: Wolves travelling as dispersers, i.e. without a fixed pack and without a familiar territory, attacked sheep and cattle significantly more frequently than animals in established pack structures. Sedentary packs preferentially hunted wild animals, knew their territory and generally actively avoided actively managed agricultural areas.

This finding has been repeatedly confirmed in subsequent research. A study from Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein (Mayer et al., 2022) showed that dispersers in agricultural areas with low wildlife density caused the majority of all livestock kills, while pack members in protected areas caused significantly less damage.

Culling destabilizes precisely those structures that provide protection

This is the crucial irony of today's wolf policy: Anyone who kills an alpha animal or partially removes a pack destroys precisely that social stability that prevents livestock kills. Remaining pack members disperse, lose their territorial bond and become the opportunistic lone wolves that Imbert et al. warned about as early as 2016.

A study from Montana, Wyoming and Idaho (Wielgus & Peebles, 2014) showed even more clearly: The number of livestock kills typically increased in the year following wolf culls, not decreased. Only with a removal rate of over 25 percent of the population did damage numbers drop, a rate that is not biologically sustainable and inevitably leads to destabilization of the entire population.

But the politics continue shooting

In Switzerland, a total of 89 wolves were killed during the 2025/26 regulation phase, including according to conservation organizations numerous animals from socially functioning packs without documented proof of damage. Nevertheless, the number of packs rose to 43, because vacated territories were quickly reoccupied. This confirms: Culling does not solve the problem; it shifts it spatially and temporally.

In Lower Austria, a hunting law amendment came into force on February 3, 2026, defining the wolf as a huntable species. In the German Bundestag, inclusion of the wolf in the Federal Hunting Law was debated at the end of January 2026. Both initiatives are based on political pressure, not scientific evidence.

What works instead

Imbert et al. (2016) also explicitly names the solution: consistent, correctly applied livestock protection. Electric fences, livestock guardian dogs, nighttime penning - they work, as data from Graubünden and Valais show, where kills declined despite stable or growing wolf populations. The Lupus Institute summarizes: As long as unprotected livestock remains available, wolves will take it, regardless of whether culling took place beforehand.

The study is ten years old. Its message is clearer than ever: Stable packs are not a problem that needs to be solved. Anyone who destabilizes them creates the very conditions for those conflicts they claim to prevent.

Wolf in Switzerland: Facts, Politics and the Limits of Hunting · The Wolf in Europe: Why Recreational Hunting is Not a Solution · Wolf in Hunting Law: Austria and Germany

Editorial note on transparency: The study by Imbert et al. was published in 2016 in Biological Conservation and is not new research. However, the renewed attention in the Italian press (La Stampa, February 2026) shows how current the findings remain in the context of today's wolf policy.