The wolf attack on a woman in Hamburg represents the first such incident since the species' reintroduction to Germany almost 30 years ago. "Since the species returned to Germany, no person has been injured by a wolf," a spokesperson for the Federal Office for Nature Conservation (BfN) stated on Tuesday in Bonn. "A case of unprovoked aggressive behavior has not occurred since the wolf's establishment in Germany in 1998," the agency's statement continued.
A woman was bitten and injured by a wolf on Monday evening in Hamburg. According to the Hamburg environmental authority, police officers subsequently captured the animal. How authorities will proceed with the wolf remained unclear initially. In all likelihood, this is the same wolf sighted multiple times in western Hamburg over the weekend.
The woman bitten by the wolf in the Altona district on Monday evening sustained facial injuries, according to media reports, and received treatment at a hospital. Following the attack, the wolf fled through the city center and jumped into the Alster river. Police officers eventually managed to capture it using a noose. The wolf was transported to a wildlife park.
How the biting incident occurred remained unclear. According to the information, the wolf exhibited "strongly pronounced flight behavior" during previous sightings, "reacted extremely timidly and immediately withdrew as soon as people or dogs crossed its path."
The wolf was considered extinct in Germany by the mid-19th century after centuries of persecution. Only after reunification did they begin to resettle, initially in the far east of Germany. During the 2024/2025 monitoring year, the federal states confirmed the presence of a total of 219 wolf packs, 43 wolf pairs, and 14 resident individual wolves. Most wolf packs lived in Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, and Saxony.
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