A wildlife camera in the northern part of the Veluwe heathland district has captured a pack of no fewer than 11 wolves for the first time.

The footage, taken at night, shows the pack which has made the area its home for the past few years. ‘You see the male and the female, together with their cubs from last year and the ‘teenagers’ from the previous year,’ said Glenn Lelieveld of Wolvenmeldpunt, which registers sightings.

‘It is coming up to mating season so the pack mark their entire territory with smell to keep other wolves at bay,’ he said.

Earlier this year, the provinces of Drenthe, Overijssel and Friesland have asked nature minister Christianne van der Wal to ‘make more noise’ in Europe about limiting the protected status of wolves, opening up the way to controlling their numbers.

The Netherlands is currently home to four wolf packs and, anti-wolf campaigners say, the animals are killing livestock and could even pose a threat to humans.

European rules state that other possibilities to keep wolves from making a nuisance of themselves should be exhausted and that Europe can accommodate at least 1,000 packs. At the moment the number stands at 300.