In the valley of Monte Sogno, very close to where I live, hunters since 2013 have been reporting predations on hunting dogs by wolves, everyone talks about it, and everyone says that those wolves that eat dogs are certainly not pure wolves but "hybrids" .
It was precisely the story of this pack that gave birth to what is now my greatest passion: studying and trying to understand wolves, and, through this knowledge, trying to contribute to correct information and coexistence.
In 2015, at the request of the ATC in the area (hunting territorial area), the WAC (Wolf Apennine Center) intervenes to try to understand what is actually going on and try to find solutions.
The cases of predation ascertained on dogs of the family unit of Mount Sogno during hunting hunts, from 2013 to 2015 are over 20, although the cases reported by hunters but not verified are almost sixty.
The technicians arrive on site and in 2015 they start the research: they note that in the area there is a family of wolves and that the dominant male is lame.
He misses the foot of his right front leg.
It is not known what caused this impairment.
A snare?
A trap?
An accident, a shot?
“LoZoppo”, this is the name given to the wolf, is taken up together with a female and other young specimens, it is a big and powerful wolf, undoubtedly with a great character since it is the dominant male of the family despite the strong lameness.
In April 2015, the WAC technicians captured two wolves, both females, a few days apart from each other, the dominant one called "Lubiana" and the daughter called "Bandia".
Ljubljana dominant female
Bandia daughter of Ljubljana and LoZoppo
Wolves turn out to be two pure specimens of canis lupus italicus and are released equipped with a radio collar (satellite collar that sends GPS signals indicating the position of the wolves to the operator)
At the beginning of 2016 I contacted the WAC, in particular with Dr. Luigi Molinari who actively follows the wolves equipped with radio collars and needs to monitor the family unit and someone who follows them through video traps.
Thus began our collaboration, fundamental for me, because thanks to the great professionalism, availability and passion of Gigi (Luigi Molinari) I learned a lot about wolves.
In monitoring this flock, I certainly have an advantage because, thanks to the spatial information obtained from the radio collars, the WAC gives me indications on the most important areas in which to place the video traps.
But despite this precious information on the family unit of the Dream Valley, the first surprises immediately arrive.
I had few video-traps, and the research was concentrated in the upper Corno valley, an area outside the territory of Ljubljana and LoZoppo, where I was trying to find out if there were any other wolves, instead with my first daytime video of wolves , I take Ljubljana together with another wolf ...
I certainly did not expect to take back the wolves of the Branco del Monte Sogno, first because I knew the use of their territory that did not go up to there and then because I imagined that that ridge was a border point with another pack.
In short, I expected to take back other wolves, the neighbors of Ljubljana and LoZoppo, which I later discovered to be Codino and Sottiletta.
Dr. Molinari and I feel very often and checking the movements of Ljubljana, we observe that the she-wolf moves outside its home-range (the exclusive territory of the family unit) and we hypothesize that something probably must have happened.
But as usual you have to wait and hope to be able to acquire meaningful videos, capable of giving answers.
In April, a recovery made in the Pineta Alta, which later turns out to be part of the Codino and Sottiletta territory, is fundamental and probably explains the reason for the movements outside the home-range by the dominant female of the Monte Sogno herd .
Ljubljana and Bandia (the daughter) are associated with another male who marks (within the family unit only the dominant or parental couple marks the territory, that is, lays excrements and / or urine to leave their odor imprinted.
We understand immediately: LoZoppo has been replaced by another wolf, and we immediately wonder what will have happened and there will still be.
To find out I had to have new video-traps and go to place them in the territory of the herd of the valley of the Dream, and finally from May, also thanks to some equipment provided by the WAC, I begin to monitor them too with the hope of being able to acquire new information on the family and try to find out if LoZoppo is still there.
I set up two video traps: one on the Strada dello Zoppo the area mainly used by wolves in 2015 when the dominant male was LoZoppo, and one on the Strada della Provinciale where the GPS signals indicate the constant presence of wolves, highlighting how, compared to the year before, the family unit changed land use and how the replacement of the dominant male (LoZoppo) probably influenced this important change.
Waiting to understand if the new couple has reproduced but also with the hope of finding the mythical lame wolf, the confirmation arrives that Ljubljana gave birth with a video where the she-wolf is together with the new dominant male and in which the signs of breastfeeding.
To the new dominant male I have given the name of Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, due to the fairly evident bands on the neck and also for the very dark tail, it is a great beautiful animal, a worthy substitute for the lame wolf.
We don't know what could have happened to LoZoppo, he could have died, but he could also still be around, dismissed, perhaps on the edge of what was once his territory.
I was fascinated by this wolf, with its lameness probably caused by humans.
Unfortunately I could only imagine how the other wolves in the pack took care of him but above all how, despite such an important impairment, he remained the dominant male of the family, showing a very strong character.
It had to be a power, and therefore I hoped very much to find it in order to be able to take it back and tell it.
Unfortunately in the past two years he has never appeared in any video and is it very likely that he died, defeated and replaced by Giovanni or by accident or natural causes?
Most likely we will never know what happened to me, the legendary lame wolf will remain for me, which unfortunately I have not had time to meet.
LoZoppo - WAC photo
Finally with great emotion, in addition to several passages by Bandia and Giovanni, I record the first videos of the puppies which are my very first videos of wolf cubs ever.
The cubs grow at the speed of light, a sign that the family unit takes excellent care of them.
The video trap placed on the Strada dello Zoppo instead takes a couple of young wolves, always together, whom I have christened "The inseparable".
There I did not record any video in which they are associated with the herd of Monte Sogno, and not even passages of Ljubljana, Bandia and Giovanni, and towards the end of summer the dominant attitudes of the Inseparables lead me to think that it is a young couple who perhaps he took advantage of the change phase (Giovanni replaces LoZoppo) to settle in what was the heart of the Monte Sogno pack until the year before.
Knowing the areas most frequented by wolves, I place another video trap in the Rio della Stalla, to try to understand how many puppies there are and from the shooting I understand that there are at least six.
Bandia, daughter of Ljubljana and de LoZoppo, spends a lot of time with them playing the role of helper (wolves who actively take care of the litter) and she certainly does it very well, I have recorded many videos where she is with the puppies.
In September 2016, with the resumption of the hunting activity, in addition to removing the video traps, we wait to understand what will happen with the hunting dogs.
Previous family predations on dogs have highlighted a sort of "specialization" in preying on hunting dogs during wild boar hunt
Although wolves do not see dogs as prey, but rather as competitors, in some cases they can safely attack and feed on them, they are very intelligent and opportunistic animals.
The limp of the dominant male has greatly influenced predation towards dogs: the wolf, having great difficulty in moving, has learned that hunting dogs came very close to him, following his smell like that of the other wild ones, without having to chase them: it was the dogs that came to him.
When LoZoppo was replaced by a new dominant male between the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016, the predations on dogs decreased greatly with 3 cases reported in 2016 and ceased in 2017 with no known cases.
I leave 2016 and the family of the Dream valley with Giovanni, Ljubljana, Bandia and 6 puppies, and unfortunately also with the radio collars of the wolves that download one after the other and that therefore will no longer allow you to know where they are moving or even if they are still there.
I resumed the monitoring activity in January 2017 by placing a video trap on the Strada della Provinciale, an area very popular with wolves the year before, and another near the Strada dello Zoppo, an exclusive area of the Inseparables.
For three months the video trap positioned on the Strada della Provinciale does not record the passage of any wolf, while the one positioned on the Strada dello Zoppo resumes many passages of Ljubljana and Giovanni.
Bandia does not appear in the videos.
In May, a daytime video of Ljubljana confirms the reproduction: in the she-wolf the signs of breastfeeding are evident, the numerous shots of the couple on the Strada dello Zoppo, together with the total absence of passages on the Strada della Provinciale, lead me to think that Ljubljana is returned to use the territory of when she was together with LoZoppo
I add a video trap that I place on Ponte Capra near the Strada dello Zoppo, and here beyond the passages of Ljubljana and Giovanni I begin to shoot a couple of wolves with dominant attitudes (they mark on the same sites as Lubiana and Giovanni), I don't understand if they are Inseparable or another couple, but their very frequent passages so close to the Ljubljana and John rendezvous area are decidedly unusual.
From the end of July I wait to record videos of the puppies that should now start to move, instead not only I do not shoot them, but I see a lot decrease in the frequency of the passages of Ljubljana and John and increase those of the new couple that I called Nikka and Yawn, something it doesn't fit.
I try to understand what may have happened, the drought year that has dried up sources and streams and also the presence of this couple with attitudes of dominance, I imagine could have pushed the wolves to change the area, so I decide to try to place a video trap on the Strada della Provinciale, where the year before I had taken back the litter of Ljubljana and Giovanni, and luckily I'm not mistaken!
The wolves have moved back to where I had taken them back the year before.
Shooting the puppies, 6 also in 2017, but although I hoped for a lot Bandia does not appear in any video even here.
She too, like Lo Zoppo, has disappeared.
I understood that it is something I have to get used to, when you no longer shoot a wolf you cannot know why, if it is dead and why, if it has gone scattered, where ... or if maybe it is still there and you just have the bad luck of fail to take it back.
Bandia in a 2016 shoot
I only recorded two videos where Ljubljana and Giovanni are associated with another wolf, so I assume that in 2017 the family unit is formed by the two dominants plus a third individual and the 6 puppies of the year, Bandia is no longer there and is there, she is a female of almost two years and I like to think that she was never recovered because she left in dispersion (the young wolves leave the herd of origin in search of a free territory and a companion with whom to form a new herd) and that maybe some day who knows where, someone will take it back.
I still have a bad taste in my mouth, because as for Codino and Sottiletta, even this family unit does not increase in individuals: of the six puppies of 2016 that should now be associated with Ljubljana and Giovanni I have taken only one.
With the resumption of the hunting activity I learned well that the video-traps annoy and therefore I usually remove them all.
In January 2018 I resume monitoring I place two video traps one on the Strada dello Zoppo and one on the Strada della Provinciale where I had taken the puppies the year before.
On the Lame Road, in addition to Nikka and Yawn, I also take a lame wolf who is not LoZoppo but probably one of those many wolves who try to eliminate and who left his foot in a snare or to which they shot.
On the Provincial road, on the other hand, I start taking wolves that I don't recognize but most likely they are the 2017 puppies that have grown up (often young wolves continue to frequent the rendezvous area) and meanwhile I wait to take Ljubljana and Giovanni back to understand if there is I am still.
The video finally arrives: Giovanni, however, is associated with another she-wolf and this means that Ljubljana has been replaced.
I know I don't have to become attached, but it is really hard because following these animals that are almost ghosts that only occasionally you can see and with difficulty even shooting with video traps somehow makes them special.
We still don't know many things about this family, I don't know why another dominant couple (Nikka and Sbadiglio) crept into what is their presumed territory, I don't know if Ljubljana, this female who has been dominant for at least 4 years and that she was a great she-wolf (her cubs were growing visibly) and she survived in a territory where wolves do not have an easy life is there still or if she died and why, and if there will still be, as I hope , what will its destiny be: isolated on the edge of what has been its territory, or with a role in the pack?
The story of this family is intense and very exciting for me, it begins with a lame wolf and two radio-collared wolves, LoZoppo, Ljubljana and Bandia and ends without any of the three of them, but in reality it does not end because what I learned in these three years that I follow and study wolves is that you can never have certainties and that these incredible animals manage to amaze us, always!
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