Because of the impending storm, the roebuck are running, whereas they normally would be bedded down. And, since the deer are running, the wolves may be hunting. These wolves may well be "the disturbing element" in the forest.
This suggestion of wolves, therefore, acts as foreshadowing of what will come at the end of the narrative when the two adversaries, Georg Znaeym and Ulrich von Gradwitz, anticipate their respective parties of men to rescue them. After neither party appears, Ulrich suggests that they shout together in the hope that some of the other men will hear them. When Ulrich finally sees figures following the way he himself has come down the hillside, the two men shout together again.
"They hear us! They've stopped. Now they see us. They're running down the hill toward us," cried Ulrich.
Unfortunately, those that they see running are not Ulrich's men, nor are they Georg's. Instead, they are another "disturbing presence." When Georg asks Ulrich if the figures are his men, Ulrich laughs "the idiotic chattering laugh of a man unstrung with hideous fear." George asks, "Who are they?" Ulrich chatters, "Wolves."
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