The Flemish Institute for Nature and Forestry Research (INBO) reports that Noëlla the wolf gave birth to nine cubs this year: six males and three females. INBO also confirmed that one of the cubs died in early December.
The cubs were filmed by strategically placed cameras this summer.
The footage showed that the pack still had 13 members in October: nine cubs, two one-year-olds and the parents. At the beginning of December, it lost one of its newly born females, killed in a collision in Hechtel-Eksel.
The two one-year-olds were present throughout the breeding season and, according to INBO, they even helped raise the newborns.
The institute adds that stray wolves will most likely appear in Flanders in the coming weeks. These may be young wolves from foreign packs that are looking for their own territory.
According to the INBO, part of the current pack spotted in Hechtel-Eksel will also move, so wolves may be spotted in municipalities where none have been recorded before.
