Germany: Wolf bites woman in Hamburg

Hamburg: A wolf bit and injured a woman in the northern German city of Hamburg, police said late on Monday. It represents a rare human encounter with the typically shy species.

The incident occurred near an Ikea store about 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) from the center of Germany's second-biggest city, authorities said. The wolf later moved toward the Binnenalster lake and entered the water, where officers captured it using a snare.

The animal had likely been roaming the city since at least Saturday. Multiple sightings — believed to be of the same wolf — had been reported across Hamburg, from a suburban rail stop to a neighbourhood about 11 kilometres from the attack site.

First wolf attack in Germany in decades
The incident marked the first recorded wolf attack on a human in Germany since the species returned in the late 1990s, according to the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation.

For roughly 150 years, wolves were absent from Germany, hunted to extinction by the early 20th century. They reappeared around 1998, migrating west from Poland into eastern Germany, aided by conservation protections and expanding habitats. Their return has been hailed as a conservation success — and a source of tension, particularly among farmers concerned about livestock losses.

The upper house of the German parliament last week approved legislation to make it easier to hunt wolves.

The European Union lowered wolves' status from "strictly protected" to "protected" in a vote last year.

Experts say attacks on humans remain exceedingly rare. Wolves, especially healthy ones, generally avoid people and retreat if encountered. Most incidents, a study by the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research found, are linked to rabies, provocation or habituation — when animals lose their natural fear of humans, often after being fed or finding food near settlements.

The wolf in Hamburg is believed to be a young animal dispersing from its pack, a phase during which individuals can travel long distances in search of territory. Disoriented by the dense urban environment, it likely wandered into the city by accident and was trying to find its way out, environmental authorities said.

The wolf has now been taken to a wildlife park, local officials said.

Since 2013, Hamburg has recorded 21 confirmed wolf sightings. Most recently, a wolf was found dead in mid-March on a highway after it was hit by a vehicle.