loader image

In Italy and Europe wolves have never been reintroduced

da

Saturday 16 November 2019

da

Saturday 16 November 2019

In the 70s of the last century in Italy very few wolves had survived (it is estimated between 100 and 200 specimens), while at the beginning of 1900 the wolf was widely present throughout the country also in Sicily.

Why this drastic decrease?

Until the 70s of the last century, the wolf was a huntable animal and considered a particularly harmful species.
The hunt for "pests" was also practiced with the use of traps and poisoned morsels, furthermore the intense agricultural and breeding activity, in addition to hunting, had led to the almost total disappearance of habitats and wild ungulates (natural prey of the Wolf). What happened then? It happens that in Italy, in 1971 a DM with two-year validity was approved which provided for the prohibition of hunting wolves throughout the national territory. In 1973 it was renewed by another DM valid for three years. In 1976 another DM follows who approves total protection and prohibits the use of poisoned morsels. The law for the protection of homeothermic wildlife and for hunting 968 of 1977 and the subsequent 157/1992 inserts the wolf in the "particularly protected" species. This condition has been definitively confirmed by Presidential Decree No. 357/1997 which implements the so-called Community Habitat Directive 92/43 / EEC. But other things also happen: the progressive and inexorable human depopulation of the countryside and mountains, the repopulation of ungulates also for hunting purposes, in short, a transformation of the country where the woods have taken over much of the areas that were once cultivated and grazed. In other words, the ideal conditions for recovery and a considerable increase in fauna have found an ideal habitat.
The natural prey of the wolf has increased (wild boar, roe deer, fallow deer and red deer) and therefore the wolves have also increased. How did these wolves that were present only in central and southern Italy in the 70s to be present today in such a widespread way? The wolf lives in packs, or family nuclei, the young when they reach sexual maturity towards the two years of life, they leave the pack of origin in search of a new free territory and a mate of the opposite sex with which to form a new pack. .
Young wolves can travel hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles. This mechanism is called DISPERSION and is a reproductive strategy of this predator to avoid inbreeding. In summary: In addition to the abundance of natural prey, the dispersion, which allows the wolf to move large, even thousands of KM, has meant that its distribution now involves a large part of the country including the Alps and is now present where before it was not, but it had been until the early 1900s. When we see images or videos of wolves being released, they are wild specimens, recovered in the wild due to accidents and / or for scientific purposes generally released with collars satellite that allow researchers to monitor the movements of the specimen and acquire important information. And it is thanks to radio collars that the extent of the dispersion of wolves has been understood, two important examples are LM15 or young male Ligabue which in 2004 was recovered in the province of Parma due to an impact with a vehicle, treated and released with a radio collar. traveled about 1000 km and ended up in France, Slavc Dinaric male wolf of less than two years was captured in Slovenia for scientific purposes and has undertaken a journey of almost 2000 km that brought him to Lessinia.