Šumava's wolf enclosure viewing bridge in Srní reopens after repairs

The viewing bridge over the wolf enclosure in the village of Srní in Šumava has reopened to visitors after repairs to its load-bearing structure. The work took a month and a half and cost nearly 2.6 million crowns excluding VAT, according to national park spokesperson Dvořák.

Crews repaired 164 metres of the bridge, while the remaining roughly 75 metres — an extended rear viewing platform — are set to be fixed up next spring. One reason the repairs were split into stages was the desire to minimise disturbance to the wolves.

According to Dvořák, the bridge's wooden decking was already replaced about three years ago, when spruce boards were swapped for more durable larch ones. Last year the massive spruce support posts also reached the end of their service life and had to be replaced with larch, matching the decking.

The bridge repairs come against the backdrop of an unpleasant incident last summer: at the turn of July and August, three female wolves escaped from the enclosure. Park management ruled out an escape through the protective fencing, suspecting either human error or a deliberate release of the animals.

One of the she-wolves stayed close to the enclosure — zoologists managed to catch her, put her into quarantine, and then returned her to the pack, which accepted her back. The second she-wolf was also caught, but died shortly afterwards. "The necropsy could not clearly determine the cause of death. But it wasn't an injury that could have been inflicted by the pack. It may have been a stress reaction," Dvořák said.

Specialists tracked the fate of the third she-wolf for several weeks. She was last seen around 21 August, spotted by locals between Kvilda and Horská Kvilda. "There are several possibilities: she could have settled into the wild and be living somewhere, she could have died, been killed by a person, or by other wild wolves," the park spokesperson admitted.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by ekolist.cz