Female Wolf spotted in North Belgium, Limburg

https://www.brusselstimes.com/all-news/belgium-all-news/86758/new-female-wolf-noella-spotted-in-flanders-august-naya-christmas/





A new, female wolf has been spotted in the Oudsbergen nature reserve in the Limburg province, images by the Agency for Forest and Nature confirm.

The new wolf is a female, and was given the name Noëlla, as she was first spotted around Christmas time.

Several weeks ago, forest rangers found a series of paw prints in Oudsbergen, and specialists of the Nature and Forest Research Institute (INBO) immediately checked to see if the paw prints matched those of August, the male wolf that is often signalled in Flanders, or if there was a new wolf.

Due to the clear size difference, the specialists confirmed that the prints were not August’s. (August, is a lone male wolf in Belgium, who had his mate Naya and her pups killed in Oct 2019, presumably by hunters).
https://www.ecowatch.com/wild-wolf-belgium-naya-shot-2640828530.html

Nature and Forest Research Institute, Belgium
Great news to end the year. A female wolf has definitely been spotted in the habitat of wolf August. In wolf country, the mating season is in February, which makes us dream for 2020! Happy end of the year!”


(I checked on a map and Flanders, Belgium is 140 miles long. Also I can't find any nature preserve in the Limburg, Belgrum province, so I don't know what this poster is talking about regarding a nature preserve in Oudensburg. How are 2 wolves supposed to find each other over 140 miles.)

There is not good protection for wolves in Belgium, as they are killed off by hunters/poachers illegally.


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49933776
Oct 4, 2019
Environmentalists are offering a €30,000 ($32,950; £26,789) reward for information about the presumed death of a wolf in Belgium. Last year, the wolf - named Naya - became the first to be sighted in Belgium for a century. But local nature agencies said neither she nor her cubs had been spotted since May, and suggested batteries on her tracking collar had worn down. Several nature groups have blamed hunters for their disappearance.


https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2019/10/three-dutch-wolves-are-missing-and-may-have-been-killed-wolf-watchers-say/
Oct 2, 2019

Three wolves which were thought to have settled in the Netherlands have disappeared without trace and are feared dead. Animal protection organisation Zoogdierenvereniging said it is possible the animals could have drowned, or hit by a car, although that would have been reported to the police. ‘But it may have been hunters and we cannot ignore the possibility. Farmers do not like the wolves because they are afraid they will attack their sheep,’ spokesman Glenn Lelieveld told Trouw. Earlier the Flemish forestry commission announced a pregnant female wolf which had crossed into Belgium from the Netherlands, had probably fallen victim to hunters. There was no sign of her young and her body has not been found.