Following the tourists: what camera traps recorded in the park De Hoge Veluwe

Researchers from Wageningen Universiteit are trying to track the movements of wolves in the Dutch national park De Hoge Veluwe, but the process has proven to be much more difficult than planned. The project aims to install transmitters on five predators, but only one was successfully tagged at the end of 2025. In January 2026, communication with its antenna was lost, so the animal's current location or condition remains unknown.

Despite technical problems, three months of transmitter data and a network of camera traps revealed unexpected details about the animals' behavior. It was recorded that a wolf often settled down for a daytime rest just 40 meters from hiking trails. In one case, the camera filmed a tourist, and just two minutes later a pack of nine wolves appeared in the same area; twenty minutes later, a cyclist rode along the same route.

To continue marking predators, biologists have begun testing special cage traps with two sheep inside. Wolves are showing interest in them, but the door-closing mechanism has not yet worked. In parallel, experts are observing eleven deer, four wild boars and a roe deer: the victims are showing an escape reaction from predators, although the structure of territory use by ungulates has not changed significantly yet.