Animal group files complaint over killing of collared wolf Andrea
Saturday 19th September 2026 on 07:15 in
Austria
Animal protection group ANCA has filed an administrative complaint against the hunter who killed Andrea, a research wolf fitted with a tracking collar by the University of Udine, ORF reported. The complaint was submitted on Monday to the Spittal an der Drau district authority, which said its review would take several weeks.
The University of Udine had provided the state of Carinthia with Andrea’s movement data in an effort to prevent the wolf from being shot. Carinthia’s Department 10 for Agriculture and Forestry also told hunters that the wolf from Italy was wearing a transmitter collar and must not be killed.
Andrea, a male weighing about 45 kilograms, was nevertheless shot on February 1, 2026. The Carinthian government has stressed that no hunter had direct access to the wolf’s GPS location data.
According to a statement from the state, authorised hunters were told on the day that the wolf could be legally removed which area the collared animal was travelling through at that time. The information was not updated after it was sent, the statement said.
ANCA is now calling for a ban on wolf hunting in Carinthia, where wolves are strictly protected. Andrea Hagen of ANCA said the Bär-Wolf-Luchs-Zentrum currently had no evidence of any wolf packs still existing in the state. There had been four packs in 2025, she said.
“The Andrea case has shown us that the protection does not work,” Hagen said. She added that the official records submitted by Austria and the federal states listed no reproducing wolf pack in Carinthia. A response from Carinthia’s wolf commissioner was still pending.
The hunter who shot Andrea had a handheld thermal imaging camera and a riflescope. He told a wildlife biologist that he had not seen the transmitter collar during the night.
The Carinthian government said it had issued an appeal, rather than an order, to hunters not to kill the collared wolf. After reviewing the case, it will not take legal action against the hunter.