DR Verificerer has reviewed the incidents behind Europe’s wolf debate and found that people have been bitten by wolves in at least nine EU countries since 2000. The review follows a series of attacks on children in southern Italy in August 2026.
DR published the review on August 21, 2026. Its fact-checking unit, DR Verificerer, went through a list of alleged wolf attacks that has circulated in Danish media and online. The list originates on Wikipedia and was shared by TV Syd, and DR notes it has also been posted in the closed Facebook group “Nej til ulve i Jylland”, which has around 16,000 members.
DR checked the sources behind each entry from 2000 onward. It found documented biting incidents in Finland, Croatia, Romania, Poland, Estonia, the Netherlands, Greece, Germany and Italy, and says the real number could be higher. Some entries could not be verified, either because the animal was never confirmed as a wolf or because authorities never described the case as a wolf incident.
DR uses the broader term “wolf episodes”, because the circumstances differ widely between cases. Only one fatal wolf attack on a human is documented in modern Europe, in Spain in 1974, a case cited by Denmark’s Dyreetisk Råd and by Dyrenes Beskyttelse.
The most recent case is from Noicattaro, south of Bari in Italy. A wolf bit a six-year-old boy in a park on August 15, 2026, and according to Corriere della Sera the same animal bit two girls on August 4. One of them was hospitalized with bite injuries. Italian authorities first believed the animal was a dog, but later confirmed it was a wolf.
Corriere della Sera adds that the mayor of Noicattaro closed parks and green areas near farmland at night, and that the Puglia region authorized the animal’s capture using a task force and drones. La Repubblica Bari reports that Belgian shepherd dogs were deployed to track it.
DR also lists a March 30, 2026 incident in Hamburg, where a wolf entered a shopping street. Tagesschau described it as the first documented wolf attack on a human in Germany since wolves returned in the late 1990s. DR’s experts assess it differently, saying the woman was struck by the animal’s teeth while trying to help it out of a shop. According to The Straits Times, the wolf was later released back into the wild.
What the experts say
Peter Sunde, professor at the Department of Ecoscience at Aarhus University, told DR that authorities in several countries reacted too slowly to prevent the incidents. He also points to reluctance in southern Europe to cull wolves that may pose a risk, with relocation or captivity used instead.
Hans Peter Hansen, an independent consultant and former senior researcher at Aarhus University, said warning signs of unusual wolf behavior were often met with too little action. Both experts point to habituated wolves that have learned to associate people with food. Wolves have also been observed in Denmark in recent years, including a problem wolf shot in West Jutland.
