A wolf was found dead along a Flemish motorway on Monday morning, marking the second time in one month that a wolf is killed in a deadly traffic collision in the area.
Nature organisation Welkom Wolf said the dead animal had been found early on Monday morning near Opglabbeek, not far from the border with the Netherlands, and confirmed it was one of a litter of four cubs born in Belgium this spring.
"Tonight, another one of the three remaining Limburg wolf cubs was killed," Welkom Wolf wrote on a Facebook post, in which it also included a graphic image of the dead wolf pup.
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Last week, another wolf was found dead some 24 kilometres away along the N74 [motorway] near Hechtel-Eksel.
Both cubs are part of a litter of four born she-wolf Noëlla and wolf August in the spring, which triggered a wave of enthusiasm as it brought further proof that wolves were returning to Belgian forests.
The arrival of the four wolf pups was warmly welcomed as it came just months after unidentified poachers killed wolf Naya, the first wolf sighted in Belgium in centuries.
Announcing the death of the second cub on Monday, Welkom Wolf urged authorities to speed up the roll-out of the ontsnipperingsplan, a plan to roll-out infrastructure to protect animals living in areas cut through by motorways.
"We are now paying the price for decades of road-building without any regard for wild fauna," the organisation wrote, calling on Flemish officials to put up temporary safeguards pending the roll-out of the ontsnipperingsplan.
"The implementation of these simpler measures —pending the large infrastructure works— does not have to take years. Because the clock is mercilessly ticking, and this can happen again at any time."
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
