Seriously?: WUR-wolf to become cute lamb

WUR’s mascot the WUR-wolf will not be returning. In recent years, the wolf has acquired an image that is inconsistent with the values WUR seeks to embody. That is why as of 2025, we will be seeing a cute WUR lamb instead on open days and festive occasions.

The WUR-wolf costume was getting a bit tatty anyway. Years of being worn by sweaty students has caused considerable damage to the costume with its synthetic material, and now sources (names known to the editors) say it stinks like a ‘dead animal’.

According to WUR spokesperson Willem Jan Wol, the decision to replace the wolf costume with a lamb costume was not taken lightly. ‘WUR has to made huge cuts so we were hoping we could continue to use the wolf suit if we took it to the dry cleaners. But the wolf’s reputation has just got too bad in recent years. It has been attacking innocent prey, harassing joggers and pushing up costs for livestock farmers.’ The rotting corpse smell of the WUR wolf costume only increases the association with murdered animals, says Wol.

The wolf’s reputation has just got too bad in recent years

‘In addition, WUR wants to steer clear of controversial, polarizing topics. It’s bad enough that people keep asking us to state our position on the nitrogen issue, for example, or climate change or certain wars we don’t wish to mention. We can’t have the wolf debate on top of that.’

So after 17 Let’s Explore sessions, a lamb has been chosen as the new WUR mascot. ‘Lambs are known for being meek, docile and cute. Those are precisely the characteristics WUR wants to be known for too. Also, by choosing the lamb we will be boosting the morale of the suffering sheep farmers. The only downside of the lamb option is that it limits the scope for WURdplay. Though perhaps we can do something with a wolf in sheep´s clothing.’

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