"Coexistence is a failure," says Gerhard Fallent, an Austrian shepherd who last year saw half his flock of sheep killed by wolves. The 64-year-old has since become a vocal proponent of regulating the wolf population, founding the association Wolf Stop. "For a year, children were picked up directly from home by the school bus," he says, due to wolves coming into close proximity with human settlements. With a reported increase in attacks on livestock, several Austrian regions have authorised the killing of wolves, a move that environmentalists say violates European law. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES