An Athens first instance prosecutor’s office has issued a decision to remove a number of wolves from Mount Parnitha, northwest of Athens. The order, issued through the relevant animal welfare prosecutor, cites public safety and the protection of the region’s red deer population as primary reasons for the intervention.
The Parnitha Forestry Office has been given the mandate to implement the plan, which would involve the humane trapping of wild wolves and relocating them to mountainous areas of northern Greece. This marks the first official attempt at managing the wolf population in Greece.
However, scientists and conservationists have expressed serious reservations about the practical and ecological implications of such an operation. Concerns center on the technical difficulty of capturing free-ranging wolves and the viability of relocating them to areas that already have high wolf populations.
The return of wolves to Mount Parnitha is a relatively recent development. According to environmental organizations, the species had disappeared from the region for over 60 years before being detected again in 2014. Their resurgence is seen as both an environmental success and a management challenge, particularly given Parnitha’s proximity to the greater Athens metropolitan area, where roughly half the country’s population resides.
The debate over wolf management in Greece has intensified following the European Union’s decision to reduce the protection status of the species, citing population recovery and growing conflicts with farmers and stockbreeders. According to the Kallisto environmental organization, wolves have also recently returned to Mt. Taygetus, the highest mountain range in the Peloponnese, after nearly a century. Camera traps installed along 30 kilometers of forest road captured nine wolves, confirming the presence of a new pack.
This reappearance, confirmed by Kallisto in collaboration with forestry services and the Natural Environment and Climate Change Organization (OFYPEKA), has been welcomed as a sign of ecological recovery. However, it also underscores the need for updated conservation policies that consider both species protection and human-wildlife conflict.
In a joint letter sent in September 2024, Kallisto and 19 other environmental groups urged Environment Minister Theodoros Skylakakis to preserve strict protections for the wolf and to adopt a science-based conservation strategy, according to a public statement by the organizations.
