Wolf sightings are uncommon in Germany, as they have only returned to the wilds relatively recently, but last week a very lucky driver was treated to a glimpse of a wolf on the roadside in Brandenburg.

Brandenburg’s friendly wolf

A lone wolf greeted a surprised driver at the roadside in Brandenburg last week, in the Fläming Heath area near the town of Bad Belzig. Luckily, the driver managed to film the wolf with the camera on his mobile phone. It appears relatively unphased by the driver's sudden appearance, apparently playfully bounding away from the car. Check out the video below.

The wild wolves of Germany

Wolves were largely rendered extinct across most of western and central Europe by the 19th century; the last evidence of wolves reproducing in Germany comes from the early 1900s. However, since the fall of the Iron Curtain, wolves have gradually been returning to Germany, migrating initially from Poland. In 2000, the first litter of wolf pups were born in Germany, in the eastern Lausitz region.

Wolves are a rare sighting in Brandenburg, although their numbers have been continuously rising since 2007, when a pair of wolves first claimed a territorial area inside the state. Following this, wolf pups were born in Brandenburg for the first time in over a century in 2009.

According to the most recent figures from the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation and the Documentation and Advice Centre on the subject of Wolves (DBBW), there are 47 wolf packs in Brandenburg, with 57 confirmed territories. 10 breeding pairs and 153 puppies have been recorded.