Pioneering wolf becomes first sighted in Belgium for a century

Description

The first recorded wolf on Belgian soil for at least 100 years has made her bloody mark.

Farmers in north-east Flanders have been put on high alert after evidence emerged that Naya, a female originally from eastern Germany that has been making a pioneering trek across Europe, had killed two sheep and injured a third near the Belgian town of Meerhout.

Naya’s arrival in Belgium completes the return of the predator to every mainland country in Europe, turning back decades of persecution, although not every community might welcome it.

“Any sheep farmers should know [they are] in range of this wolf,” said Hugh Jansman, a researcher from the Wageningen University and research centre, who has been following Naya’s westward trek across hundreds of miles of European landscape.