A wolf has been photographed and filmed in the Netherlands, near the German border in Drenthe province.

The last wolf was officially seen in the Netherlands in 1897.

The wolf was first spotted and photographed next to the N381 road in rural Noord-Sleen near Emmen. It was later filmed in a nearby holiday camp.

Website Wolven in Nederland said the photographs clearly show a wolf although there are questions about its behaviour, because it does not appear to be scared of cars.

Road

It is thought to be same wolf which was filmed walking along a road in Germany the day before.

A spokesman for Drenthe province said the animal is welcome. ‘We will keep an eye on its location as well as we can because this is the first wolf to be walking around the Netherlands in two centuries,’ the province said in a statement.

In June 2014, a wolf was spotted in the Twente countryside by three separate eyewitnesses, according to local paper Twentsche Courant Tubantia. That wolf came from Germany and appeared to have gone back after a few hours.

Dumped

A dead wolf was found in Flevoland in summer 2013 but research showed it had probably been dumped there.

The last wolf was officially seen in the Netherlands in 1897.

In March 2014, the government announced the wolf will be a protected species when it returns to live in the Netherlands. This means farmers will receive compensation from a special fund if livestock are attacked and killed.