Wolf from wildlife sanctuary in Berkshire ‘should be relatively easy to catch’ but public should not approach it

Wolf experts have appealed to the police not to shoot a wolf which escaped from a wildlife sanctuary near a school in Berkshire.

Police were called at 8am on Thursday after reports from a member of the public that the animal was on the loose from the UK Wolf Conservation Trust near Reading.

It is believed the animal escaped when a fence at the sanctuary blew down in high winds.

A Thames Valley police spokesman said: “Officers have sight of the wolf and are working with staff from the sanctuary to detain it. Do not approach the wolf if you see it.”

The sanctuary, located in the village of Beenham, declined to comment.

The escape came two months after Lilith the lynx was shot after escaping from the Borth Wild Animal Kingdom in west Wales.

Richard Morley, the director of the Exeter-based Wolves and Humans Foundation, appealed for calm and said it should be relatively easy to recapture the animal.

“People are worried that it will be shot like the lynx that escaped from the zoo in Wales. That would be an overreaction. They are generally good with wolves at the UK Wolf Conservation Trust, and they will know how to handle it and get it back.

“The longer it remains uncaptured the higher the risk that the police will just say: ‘We’re going to have to shoot it.’ It would be a real shame to see it shot.”

He said the wolf would only pose a danger to humans if it got hungry or if an untrained member of the public tried to capture it.

“If the wolf remains at large for long enough that it starts to get hungry, it may follow smells of food and may approach people, and then there’s a risk. If that happens, people should stay well away and call the police. I would be very surprised if it wasn’t recaptured before the end of the day.”

But he urged dog owners to keep their pets indoors. “There’s every chance of an altercation if the wolf comes across a dog, and the dog would come off best,” he said.

Robert Mysłajek, assistant professor at the Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology at the University of Warsaw and a leading experts on wolves, said the animal was in more danger than people in the area.

He said: “There is really no danger to humans because this creature will be familiar with people. The bad news is for the wolf, because it will never have hunted alone. It will probably try to scavenge for something. It is the wolf which is in danger, not that the wolf is dangerous.

“The other problem for it is that if the area is full roads, it could easily be killed in a car accident.”



Mysłajek claimed the British could get unnecessarily worried by wolves because they “lost connection with large carnivores centuries ago”.

He added: “For the British, it can be a huge surprise when a wolf escapes, and it adds to this hysteria. But wolves are not a problem for people; we have never had trouble with them in Poland. We have problems with brown bears, but not wolves.”



Morley said: “Centuries of history have made us hysterical about wolves. There are two examples in the last 10 years where it is likely that wolves have killed people in North America. But this is a very different situation.

“It is not a wild animal, it is a tame animal that has been hand raised and is used to daily contact with people. I would definitely appeal for calm.”

Tony Roe, who lives near the wolf sanctuary, learned of the escape as he was taking his son to Beenham primary school.

The 53-year-old solicitor said: “We got to the school gate and a police officer was standing outside. I asked if something was happening and she said a fence had blown down at the sanctuary and a wolf had escaped. She was making sure the children got into school safely and the gate was secure.”