“I noticed in my plowed field that there were tracks of at least four wolves,” said shepherd Isidro Fernandes from Vilar Seco, Vimioso. He added that the predators “jumped the fence and entered where the pregnant sheep were.”
The shepherd expressed no doubt that “the wolves attacked during the day and very close to the village,” roughly one hundred meters from his home.
“Attacks have happened frequently in the municipalities of Vimioso and Miranda do Douro [district of Bragança]. Something needs to be done, because we’re working and we don’t know for whom,” he remarked.
According to Fernandes, the attack occurred between six in the morning and six in the afternoon on Tuesday.
“The wolves returned this morning but did not attack, as they might have sensed something and fled,” he emphasized.
The latest recorded wolf attack on the Mirandese Plateau occurred on October 5 in Águas Vivas, municipality of Miranda do Douro.
Fernandes reported that the incident was communicated to the GNR and the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF).
This is the fifth wolf attack recorded in the Miranda do Douro municipality in just over a month.
On September 19, the ICNF reported to Lusa that since 2024, 32 wolf attacks had been recorded in the Mirandese Plateau region, a border area in the Bragança district.
Experts contacted by Lusa suggested that the lack of food caused by fires and the wolf’s “territorial” nature were some of the reasons for the attacks.
The proximity of wolf attacks to villages is also alarming sheep and goat producers in this northern territory.
According to the ICNF, the Iberian wolf holds the status of an endangered species in Portugal, granting it protected status.
In July, the Alcateia 2025-2035 Program for the protection of the Iberian wolf was introduced, with a budget of 3.3 million euros for this year, including a revision of compensation for wolf attacks on livestock to bring them closer to market values.
According to the ICNF, compensations could reach values of, for example, 60 or 70 euros per animal, whereas in the market, it would be 170 or 180 euros, highlighting that while not entirely matching market value, there is an approximation.
