The European Commission is deliberating on lowering the protection status of wolves in the EU. It seems like this decision has been taken after the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen’s pony was killed by wolves. Is this really the reason for what many have dubbed “a new European wolf hunt”? To unpack this issue I talked to environmentalists, farmers, top-tier scientists and last but not least, hunters. Our guests are a wildlife biologist, Professor John Linnell, a goat breeder, Bruno Lecomte, a social scientist, ​​Professor Erica von Essen, an environmentalist, the Head of EU Policy at BirdLife International, Ariel Brunner and, last but not least, the Secretary General of the European Federation for Hunting and Conservation, Dr David Scallan. Special thanks to hunting journalist and blogger Denis Plat for his help in ensuring that opinions from rural France were voiced. While making this episode I recorded many hours of material and understandably not all of it made it into the episode. If you would be interested in listening to the individual interviews with the guests in this podcast, please register your interest by clicking here. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the individual participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any organisation. The participants are expressing their personal opinions and perspectives. Subscribe to Tommy's Outdoors: Conservation and Science Newsletter Support the Podcast and Buy Me a Coffee. Recommended Books: tommysoutdoors.com/books Merch: tommysoutdoors.com/shop Follow Tommy's Outdoors on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Facebook Mentioned in this episode: This is the Conservation and Science podcast Replay series, a curated collection of best episodes from last year. If you are new to the show, this is an excellent opportunity to catch up with the most popular episodes from the back catalogue. And if you’re a regular listener, maybe you missed one of those or want to listen to one of them again. Don’t worry! The new episodes are being published on the regular fortnightly schedule, so keep tuning in for the new content every other Tuesday.