A woman walking in Hamburg suffered something that folks in Germany almost never do: a wolf bite. Police on Monday said the animal attacked the victim near an Ikea store about 2 1/2 miles from the city center, marking what federal conservation officials describe as the first documented wolf attack on a person in Germany since the animals returned in the late 1990s, per Deutsche Welle. Local media report that the woman was bitten in the face after the confused wolf kept hitting a glass wall and the woman tried to help guide it out of the mess it was in, per Politico.
Officers later tracked the wolf to the Binnenalster lake, where it went into the water and was captured with a snare, per DW. Authorities believe the wolf, thought to be a juvenile that had left its pack, had been roaming the city for days, with sightings reported across Hamburg. Experts say it was likely disoriented by the urban setting and trying to escape. Regional government officials say trying to navigate the city would prove very stressful for a wolf, per the AP. The animal has since been taken to a wildlife park, while the injured woman received stitches at a local hospital and was released.
The incident comes as Germany debates how to manage its growing wolf population. The upper house of the nation's parliament recently backed looser rules on hunting wolves, and the European Union has downgraded wolves' protection status. Researchers stress that attacks on humans remain extremely uncommon and are often tied to disease, provocation, or animals that have lost their fear of people.
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