It’s been an awfully long time since a wolf pack has called Denmark home — roughly two centuries, in fact.
“Wolves were exterminated in Denmark because of intense persecution,” Peter Sunde, a senior researcher at Aarhus University, tells Newsweek. He says that before a male wolf was spotted wandering the Jutland peninsula north of Germany in 2012, the last verified wild wolf sighting in the country took place in 1813.
While the 2012 discovery was cause for celebration, another question remained: This male can’t simply be a lone wolf, right?
Now, Sunde and Kent Olsen of Natural History Museum Aarhus say they’ve confirmed the presence of not just other wolves in Denmark, but a full-fledged wolf pack — meaning the group has a she-wolf in its midst, as well.
They point to CCTV footage and DNA tests of stool samples recovered by volunteers in the past half-year, which together show four males and a female have been moving through the region.
The researchers believe the female, which bears the elegant code name GW675f, crossed the border into Jutland from Germany across a distance of roughly 340 miles last summer. Now, footage of a pair of wolves suggests she has also found a mate in her new home.
“We expect that they will have cubs this year or the next,” Sunde told national broadcaster DR, according to a translation by the BBC.
Denmark Now Has A Wild Wolf Pack Again — For The First Time In 200 Years
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