The Hoge Veluwe National Park is temporarily moving part of the herd of mouflons abroad. The wild sheep come back when the she-wolf that is now somewhere in the park has disappeared. The mouflons that remain at De Hoge Veluwe will be placed behind a wolf-resistant fence.
According to head of operations Jakob Leidekker, these measures are necessary, because a she-wolf has already attacked and bitten dozens of mouflons. According to Leidekker, the she-wolf entered the nature park in the summer through a hole in the fence. The Hoge Veluwe is very much against the return of the wolf to the Veluwe and wants to drive the animal out of the park. But since the wolf is heavily protected, this requires intensive consultation with governments.
The mouflon has been living in the nature park for a hundred years. Former owner Anton Kröller introduced the wild sheep, which originally come from Corsica. The herd on the Hoge Veluwe now consists of about two hundred animals. According to Leidekker, the mouflons are important for biodiversity, because they graze grass and Scots pine between the heath. If that did not happen, the heath would overgrow with grass and trees and eventually heaths and sand drifts would disappear.
Usually the mouflons roam freely through the more than 5,000 hectare nature reserve. The Hoge Veluwe shoots a number of animals every year to keep the population under control. That will not happen this year, according to Leidekker, because the wolf has struck.
