A six-year-old boy may have been attacked by a wolf on Wednesday morning while playing in the woods near Austerlitz, the province of Utrecht has confirmed.
DNA has been collected from the child and is being analysed to determine whether a wolf was involved, the Telegraaf said.
The incident occurred near the Pyramide van Austerlitz, a popular monument in the Utrechtse Heuvelrug region. According to the Den Treek estate website, the boy was bitten and dragged into the forest before adults intervened and hit the wolf with a stick.
If confirmed, it would be the latest in a string of wolf-related incidents in the area. In May, a jogger was bitten twice on her leg at the same estate and there have been several scares involving children.
DNA from those earlier cases identified the wolf as GW3237m, known informally as Bram. The province of Utrecht has received court approval to shoot the animal, classed as a ‘problem wolf’ due to its repeated approach to humans and attacks on people and dogs.
Wardens from the Den Treek estate have urged the public not to enter the area with children or dogs until the situation is resolved. “Safety comes first,” a notice on the estate’s website reads.
The province had already issued safety advice earlier this year, recommending that children under 10 not walk in the forest alone, dogs be kept on a short lead, and visitors stay on marked paths.
In May the European parliament decided to downgrade the wolf’s protected status, changing it from “strictly protected” to “protected”, which maks it easier to organise culls, and downgrade the wolf in domestic legislation.
That legislation still has to be enacted in Dutch law.
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