Spain Approves Nationwide Ban on Hunting Wolves
The historic move protects the country’s last 2,000 remaining wolves, and will help rescue the species from the threat of extinction.
Conservationists are celebrating a historic victory as the Spanish government votes for a complete ban on hunting wolves across the country.
Spain had previously allowed hunting to take place in the north of the country, where most of the 2,000 Iberian wolves are thought to reside. With a lack of legal protection, hunters kill hundreds of wolves every year, with the Castilla y León region alone responsible for the shooting of 339 wolves over a three year period since 2019.
But last week's vote by the Environment Ministry will finally see the country’s wolves legally protected from hunters, with the animals now sharing the same protected status as the Iberian Lynx and Cantabrian Brown Bear.
The government’s plan seeks to give the wolves a “safe coexistence with human activity”, showing a positive development in helping to protect wildlife. Wolves in Spain had come close to extinction in the 1960s, but have managed to bounce back. With this new law, conservationists are hopeful that the wolves can continue to thrive.
Juan Carlos del Olmo, head of WWF Spain, welcomed the news, explaining that the ban is the “first step towards changing a model based on persecution and death of wolves to a new and more appropriate 21st-century approach to conserve the species in coexistence with human activities”.
The government has pledged to work with farmers to protect their livestock from wolves, and many farmers have now taken to installing high-fenced pens to protect their flocks.
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Hope was last seen traveling with another critically endangered Mexican gray wolf, whose whereabouts remain unknown.