Bram and Hubertus are marked for death. Camouflage-clad government marksmen – licensed but anonymous, for security reasons – are hunting them in the sparse woodlands of one of Europe’s most densely populated nations.
But it’s proving trickier than expected. The hunters are not alone in the woods. A parallel force – equally camouflaged, well equipped and dedicated if not fanatical – is also out there, a Dutch daily newspaper reports. Animal rights activists and climate crusaders have taken it upon themselves to protect the pair, by any means necessary.
A human fatality is only a matter of time
Bram and Hubertus are wolves, given cosy, old-fashioned Dutch names to garner sympathy for them. Their crime? Doing what wolves do: killing sheep and threatening humans. Yet to their defenders, the two predators are martyrs in a holy war. Their transgressions, we are told, are the price we must pay for ‘rewilding’ the Netherlands – the green left’s latest crusade. A visionary project that, if you believe the sales pitch, will not only lower carbon emissions but might just save the entire planet.
Wolves, you say? In the Netherlands? That neat sliver of reclaimed land, where every square inch is built on, farmed or under some sort of regulatory control? A country of 18.4 million (and counting), the most densely populated in Europe, where people hope the sea stays on the right side of the dykes?
Alas, yes. In 2015, wolves crossed over into the country from Germany, after a 150-year absence, under the cover of EU environmental directives which give them protected status.
It probably never even crossed the minds of the bureaucrats who drew up these rules that wolves would come here. But now, thanks to these protections, they have proliferated. There are thought to be a total of 150 to 180 wolves, in 13 confirmed wolf packs with at least 45 cubs, within Dutch territory. Experts at Wageningen University believe there is room for no less than 56 packs in the country. And since the Netherlands has no wilderness to speak of, that habitat will inevitably come at the expense of humans and other animals.
In the first half of 2025, wolves carried out 497 attacks on livestock – up from 360 in the same period the previous year. According to a provincial wildlife bureau, 85 per cent of these attacks were due to insufficient protective measures by farmers. In other words: your sheep are dead, and it’s your own fault for not building better fences.
Killing sheep is one thing. Sadly, there are now reports of attacks on humans: a jogger, a hiker, a child. Wolves have been spotted skulking around schoolyards on the urban fringe, prowling near cycle paths, stalking dog walkers, and menacing tourists in woodland areas. A human fatality is only a matter of time.
And yet the government dithers. Bram and Hubertus have been designated ‘problem wolves’ – which means they may, in theory, be culled. But months have passed, and they remain at large. Compare this to dogs: in the Netherlands, a dog that bites someone is usually put down almost immediately by armed police.
Meanwhile, rural communities have been told to adapt. Farmers must fortify their land. Nature lovers are warned not to linger in parks and reserves where wolves might be present. Dog-walking is discouraged. Children are kept from playing in nearby woods. And entire rural businesses – especially those catering to day-trippers and family cyclists – are suffering.
Still, the wolf remains sacrosanct, canonised by its fanatical urban fan club. The predators have become pawns in a larger ideological project – a utopian plan to rewild the country and wage war on the root cause of everything: humans. And it is going to end badly.
ARK Rewilding – one of the chief evangelist organisations behind the wolf’s surprise resurrection – says the Netherlands has more than enough space for wolves. Indeed, they argue, nature will be much ‘improved’ by their return. Wolves, as apex predators, are said to miraculously revitalise ecosystems and reboot natural processes. How precisely this works in a countryside criss-crossed by bicycle lanes, pancake restaurants and ring roads remains unclear.
For activists, it is not for humans to decide whether the Netherlands is suitable for wolves, but for wolves to decide whether the Netherlands is suitable for them. And since they’ve returned – breeding, pack-forming, settling in – they’ve apparently answered that question with a resounding ‘yes’. The rest of us, says ARK, must now behave ‘responsibly’: secure our livestock, walk our dogs on leads, and keep our children out of the woods.
According to the recent Dutch study Nederwolf, there’s a predictable – and dangerous – consequence to this. Wolves, once emboldened, have what researchers call an ‘escalation ladder’. Stage six is when they begin to interact more freely with humans – which isn’t a sign of friendliness, but rather a precursor to testing whether they are prey. The next stage? Killing people.
Incredibly, the government, tied up by EU-regulations, has so far found no effective way of stopping all this. And for the activists, it seems only wolf lives matter.
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