Germany is one of the most densely populated and intensively managed landscapes in Europe, yet its wildlife story over the past few decades has been one of surprising recovery. Wolves, lynx, bison, beavers, and otters have all returned to regions where they had been absent for generations. At the same time, the country faces serious ecological pressures: invasive species are spreading fast, insect populations have crashed, and managing diseases in wild boar has become a continental priority. The picture is messier and more interesting than a simple comeback narrative.
The Return of Wolves
Wolves disappeared from Germany by the late nineteenth century, hunted to extinction across the country. They began trickling back around 2000, crossing the border from Poland into the military training areas of eastern Germany. Between 2000 and 2015, the population grew at roughly 36% per year, an exponential rise that caught many off guard.1Conservation Letters. Military training areas facilitate the recolonization of wolves in Germany Today there are well over a hundred packs spread across much of northern and central Germany, and sightings in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg are becoming more common.
What stands out about the wolf recolonization is where it started. Protected nature reserves were not the launch pads. Instead, active military training areas served as stepping stones, offering large tracts of relatively undisturbed land with minimal civilian activity. The first wolf territories in each newly colonized region were typically established on these military grounds, often at long distances from the nearest known pack, before spreading outward into the surrounding countryside.2Conservation Letters. Military training areas facilitate the recolonization of wolves in Germany As the population has grown, wolves have settled the best-quality habitat first and then filled in lower-quality areas nearby, a pattern researchers describe as a classic expansion front.3Diversity and Distributions. Understanding habitat selection of range‐expanding populations of large carnivores: 20 years of grey wolves (Canis lupus) recolonizing Germany
The return of wolves has been politically charged. Livestock losses, particularly among sheep flocks on open pasture, generate real conflict. German shepherds surveyed in Lower Saxony rated electric fences as the most effective and practical protection measure against wolf predation, followed by livestock guarding dogs. Donkeys and llamas, sometimes promoted elsewhere, were considered the least useful.4Conservation Science and Practice. Shepherds’ perception of the effectiveness and feasibility of herd protection measures against wolf predation in Lower Saxony, Germany A global review of livestock protection measures found that deterrents like fladry (flapping flags on fencing) reduced wolf damage by 96 to 100%, while fences reduced it by roughly two-thirds to 100%, depending on type. Guard dogs were moderately effective, cutting losses by about 42 to 79%. Lethal control, by contrast, performed worst among measures with multiple case studies, reducing damage by as little as 3%.5Global Ecology and Conservation. The effectiveness of livestock protection measures against wolves (Canis lupus) and implications for their co-existence with humans That finding is worth sitting with: killing wolves has consistently been one of the least effective ways to protect livestock.
Some German farmers have turned to livestock guarding dogs, an old practice that fell out of use when wolves vanished. Early results suggest these dogs adapt well to a range of farm animals: researchers found that guard dogs tended to stay within about one body length of goats and horses, and could protect multiple species on the same property.6PubMed Central. Guard dog behaviour (Canis lupus familiaris) towards various animal species and humans on farms in Germany
Lynx and Wildcats in Fragmented Forests
Wolves walked back in on their own. Lynx needed more help. The Eurasian lynx was wiped out across most of Central Europe centuries ago, and reintroduction programs have been its main route back. In Germany, the most significant effort has been in the Harz Mountains of central Germany, where captive-bred animals were released starting in the early 2000s. The Harz population initially showed relatively high genetic diversity because the founders came from several different captive lineages. But that diversity has been declining steadily: expected heterozygosity dropped from 0.63 shortly after reintroduction to 0.55 within a decade.7Conservation Genetics. The rise of a large carnivore population in Central Europe: genetic evaluation of lynx reintroduction in the Harz Mountains The population is growing and spreading into adjacent regions, but genetically, the clock is ticking.
This is not unique to the Harz. Across Europe, reintroduced lynx populations consistently show rising inbreeding, and the problem gets worse when fewer individuals were released at the start.8Biological Conservation. Genome-wide diversity loss in reintroduced Eurasian lynx populations urges immediate conservation management The long-term vision involves creating a connected metapopulation spanning Central Europe so that animals from different reintroduction sites can eventually reach each other. That is an ambitious goal in a landscape crosscut by highways, cities, and agricultural land.
The European wildcat faces a related but distinct challenge. Unlike the lynx, wildcats were never fully exterminated in Germany; remnant populations held on in forested uplands. But their habitat is fragmented enough that many populations are isolated from one another. Researchers in Lower Saxony developed a corridor plan using habitat-selection modeling and confirmed that wildcat sightings and roadkill were significantly more common near the predicted corridors, validating the approach.9Landscape and Urban Planning. Between ecological theory and planning practice: (Re-) Connecting forest patches for the wildcat in Lower Saxony, Germany The practical upshot is straightforward: keeping certain strips of land in a natural state and concentrating mitigation measures like underpasses along highways can knit wildcat populations back together.
Bison, Boar, and Large Herbivores
European bison were extinct in the wild by the 1920s, surviving only in zoos. Germany’s first free-ranging herd since that time was released in the Rothaargebirge mountains of North Rhine-Westphalia. The initial study of their behavior found that even a small herd could live in an area intensively used by people, though managing public encounters required careful planning.10PubMed Central. First Steps into the Wild – Exploration Behavior of European Bison after the First Reintroduction in Western Europe Bison reintroduction remains experimental in Germany and politically sensitive, given the animals’ size and the density of human land use.
Wild boar, on the other hand, need no help at all. Germany has one of Europe’s largest populations, and they thrive in urban areas, most famously in Berlin. Genetic analysis of Berlin’s wild boar has shown that the city does not simply absorb animals from the countryside. Instead, distinct urban clusters exist alongside ongoing movement between urban and rural areas, a source-sink dynamic that makes management complicated.11Journal of Applied Ecology. Do cities represent sources, sinks or isolated islands for urban wild boar population structure? You cannot solve Berlin’s boar problem just by culling animals in the parks; more will flow in from the surrounding forests.
A common assumption is that urban boar survive on trash and handouts, but stomach content analysis tells a different story. Researchers found that urban wild boar in Berlin overwhelmingly ate natural food sources, not human scraps. There was no significant difference in the types of food found in the stomachs of urban versus rural boar, though urban animals did carry higher-energy stomach contents overall.12PLoS ONE. Wild inside: Urban wild boar select natural, not anthropogenic food resources Berlin’s parks and green corridors apparently provide enough acorns, roots, and invertebrates to sustain them without much reliance on garbage bins.
Aquatic Wildlife and the Beaver Boom
Beavers were hunted to near-extinction across Europe for their fur and castoreum. Reintroduction programs and natural range expansion have brought them back across much of the continent, and the European beaver population now numbers over 1.5 million individuals.13WIREs Water. Beaver: Nature’s ecosystem engineers In Germany, beavers are now found along most major river systems, especially in Bavaria and eastern Germany. Their dam-building reshapes waterways in ways that benefit many other species by creating wetlands, slowing water flow, and raising the water table. But in a landscape where nearly every river has been straightened and every floodplain is used for agriculture, beaver activity frequently clashes with farming and infrastructure.
The Eurasian otter followed a similar trajectory. Once nearly gone from Central Europe due to water pollution and habitat destruction, otters have been recolonizing parts of Germany, including Bavaria, helped by strict legal protection, habitat restoration, and recovering fish populations.14Next Research. Diet of European otter (Lutra lutra) near nature-like fishways and spawning grounds The otter’s return is generally seen as a sign that water quality has improved enough to support top aquatic predators, though conflicts with fish farms and anglers occur.
Invasive Species Reshaping the Landscape
While native species have been recovering, two non-native carnivores have been spreading aggressively. The raccoon, introduced from North America and established in Germany since escapees and deliberate releases in the 1930s and 1940s, has undergone an explosive expansion. Hunting harvest data tracks the trend clearly: about 9,000 raccoons were harvested in the 2000/01 season, rising to roughly 71,000 by 2011/12. Their range expanded from about 26,500 square kilometers to over 111,600 square kilometers in the same period and is projected to cover about 253,000 square kilometers by 2061, or roughly 71% of Germany’s total land area.15Biological Invasions. Assessing and predicting the spread of non-native raccoons in Germany using hunting bag data and dispersal weighted models The raccoon is an opportunistic omnivore that thrives in fragmented agricultural landscapes with patches of forest, which describes most of Germany. Their expansion directly threatens endangered native species, including terrapins in wetland habitats.
The raccoon dog, originally from East Asia and introduced into the western Soviet Union in the mid-twentieth century, has spread westward into Germany on its own. Both raccoons and raccoon dogs are on the European Union’s list of invasive alien species, and climate-niche modeling suggests both could expand well beyond their current European ranges.16Mammal Review. Climatic niche comparison of raccoons Procyon lotor and raccoon dogs Nyctereutes procyonoides in their native and non‐native ranges The raccoon dog raises particular concern as a disease vector: studies from Finland and Germany have shown that its biology makes it an effective host for a range of pathogens, potentially threatening small native wildlife populations through disease transmission.17PubMed Central. The biological potential of the raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides, Gray 1834) as an invasive species in Europe-new risks for disease spread?
African Swine Fever and Wild Boar Management
Germany’s wild boar population is at the center of one of Europe’s most pressing wildlife disease challenges. African swine fever arrived in the country in 2020, carried into eastern Germany near the Polish border. The virus is lethal to pigs and boar, with no vaccine available, and it can remain infectious in boar carcasses for months. Control efforts focus on finding and removing dead animals, reducing boar density, and erecting fences to limit movement.18PubMed Central. African Swine Fever in Wild Boar in Europe-A Review The Czech Republic and Belgium both eliminated the virus from their wild boar populations using these approaches, offering Germany a template, though Germany’s much larger boar population and the scale of the affected area make containment harder.
A key challenge is understanding how boar move across the landscape. Genetic analysis of wild boar populations in the affected region has helped map connectivity between groups, and the genetic boundaries between populations align well with the observed spread of different viral lineages. That kind of information lets managers place fences and intensify carcass searches where they are most likely to slow transmission.19European Journal of Wildlife Research. Genetic differentiation of wild boar populations in a region affected by African swine fever
Green Bridges and the Infrastructure Problem
Germany has one of Europe’s densest road and highway networks, and roads are one of the biggest barriers to wildlife movement. The country has invested in wildlife crossing structures, particularly green bridges (wide, vegetated overpasses) along major highways. Monitoring one such bridge in Brandenburg confirmed that wolves, red deer, roe deer, and wild boar all used it. But the timeline was telling: prey species began crossing soon after construction, while it took almost four years before the first wolf was detected on the bridge, and another year before wolves used it regularly. Researchers found no evidence that wolves hunted on the bridge or that prey species avoided it when wolves were present.20Conservation Science and Practice. Green bridges in a re-colonizing landscape: Wolves (Canis lupus) in Brandenburg, Germany The implication is that crossing structures work, but for wary species like wolves, they take years to become part of normal travel routes.
On a much larger scale, Germany has the Green Belt, a 1,398-kilometer strip of habitat running along the former border between East and West Germany. During the Cold War, the death strip was left largely undeveloped, and after reunification it was recognized as one of Europe’s most valuable ecological corridors.21Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Governance of the German Green Belt ecological network: implications for the Korean Demilitarized Zone The Green Belt links diverse habitats from the Baltic coast to the Bavarian-Czech border and has become a flagship conservation project, though governance across multiple federal states remains complex.
The Wadden Sea and Migratory Birds
Germany’s North Sea coast includes a major section of the Wadden Sea, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most important tidal flat ecosystems in the world. It serves as a critical stopover and refueling site for millions of migratory waterbirds traveling the East Atlantic Flyway. Standardized monitoring of 34 waterbird species since 1987/88 shows a mixed picture: over the full monitoring period, populations of seven species increased, 14 remained stable, and 13 declined. In the most recent decade, the balance shifted somewhat, with 14 species increasing, 14 stable, seven declining, and three fluctuating.22Wadden Sea Ecosystem. Wadden Sea Quality Status Report: Migratory birds
The Wadden Sea’s estuarine mud flats are especially important for species that make numerous stopovers during migration. Pied avocets breeding in the German Wadden Sea, for instance, average about nine stopovers during autumn migration and spend a total of roughly 123 days at stopover sites before reaching their wintering grounds. Most of those stopovers occur at coastal wetlands rather than inland, and the muddy estuaries of the Elbe, Jade-Weser, and Ems-Dollart are particularly important during early migration stages.23Journal of Ornithology. Connectivity of wetland areas along the East Atlantic Flyway used as moulting and stopover sites by Pied Avocets (Recurvirostra avosetta) during autumn migration For species that depend this heavily on stopover quality, the condition of a handful of specific estuaries can shape population outcomes for the entire flyway.
The Insect Crash
One of the most alarming findings in modern ecology came out of Germany. A long-running monitoring program using standardized insect traps in nature reserves across western Germany documented a roughly 77% decline in total flying insect biomass over 27 years, with losses peaking in midsummer when insect abundance should be at its highest. The estimated annual rate of decline was about 6%.24PLoS ONE. More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas The study, published in 2017, made global headlines because the traps were located inside protected areas, not in farmland. If insects were disappearing even in nature reserves, the broader landscape was presumably worse.
Five years later, a follow-up project investigated whether any recovery had occurred. It had not. Insect biomass in 21 nature reserves across Germany in 2020 and 2021 remained at the same low levels recorded in earlier years. The study also confirmed that protected habitats still supported more insect biomass than surrounding farmland, making them essential for what remains of insect populations, but clearly insufficient on their own to reverse the decline.25PubMed Central. No recovery in the biomass of flying insects over the last decade in German nature protected areas The causes remain debated but likely involve agricultural intensification, pesticide use, and habitat simplification across the wider landscape that surrounds and permeates the reserves.
Dead Wood and Forest Biodiversity
Germany is about a third covered in forest, but centuries of intensive forestry have left most of those forests with far less structural complexity than natural woodlands. One key deficit is dead wood. Standing dead trees, fallen logs, and rotting stumps support an enormous community of fungi, beetles, and other organisms that depend on decaying wood for their life cycles. In managed German beech forests, the amount of dead wood is typically far below what occurs in old-growth stands.
Experimental enrichment of dead wood on a landscape scale, essentially leaving logs and dead trees in place rather than clearing them, has proven remarkably effective. In beech forests that had been intensively managed, the diversity of wood-dependent beetle species was initially much lower than in nearby forest reserves. After a decade of dead wood enrichment, that difference disappeared. Beetle communities in the formerly depleted stands came to resemble those in the reserves.26Diversity and Distributions. Decadal effects of landscape‐wide enrichment of dead wood on saproxylic organisms in beech forests of different historic management intensity Wood-inhabiting fungi recovered more slowly and needed longer than a decade for full restoration, but the trajectory was positive.
Research into how much dead wood is enough suggests that most wood-dependent species occur in forests with at least 20 to 60 cubic meters of dead wood per hectare, a threshold that most production forests in Germany fall well short of. Species that depend on large-diameter logs in advanced stages of decay need even more, and strict forest reserves with exceptionally high volumes of dead wood serve as irreplaceable refuges for these habitat specialists.27PubMed. Current near-to-nature forest management effects on functional trait composition of saproxylic beetles in beech forests The practical recommendation is plain enough: leave dead wood where it falls, especially the large-diameter pieces, and maintain unmanaged reserves as source populations for the species that need them. For a country that invented the concept of sustainable forestry, this represents a philosophical shift from tidiness toward tolerance of natural messiness.