Regarding the article published on 12 May in “Il T” entitled «Too many wolves: we are afraid here» the WWF Trentino ODV and I'm not afraid of the wolf APS associations wish to respond, through knowledge and culture on the subject, both to citizens' fears and to the wave of disinformation that increasingly permeates the public debate on large carnivores.
The wolf has been present in a stable manner on the Monte Bondone massif since 2021, the year in which a pair of wolves reproduced for the first time giving birth to 4 puppies, generating what is called by the Province "Branco Bondone/Stivo". These animals occupy very large territories and move over vast areas, also frequenting Monte Gazza and the Valle dei Laghi. What is happening is a completely natural phenomenon that has been happening for over 50 years in the rest of the country and for about 30 years in the Alps: wolves are occupying new territories and expanding naturally.
A single pack uses vast areas, even hundreds of square kilometers in the Alps, where it does not tolerate the presence of wolves extraneous to its own family nucleus: therefore there is no "supernumerary" of wolves, but a phenomenon of recolonization by new packs of the all natural.
The citizens' fears reported in the article therefore appear unjustified and overstated, as the wolf is not a direct threat to people's safety to date. The chances of entering into conflict remain minimal, even if, as in the case of encounters with any other wild animal, zero risk does not exist. In the last century in Italy there have been no cases of fatal attacks against human beings and where they occurred in the past, the social and ecological context was profoundly different from today's. The wolf does not see our species as possible prey but rather as something to stay away from, and today, as the numbers clearly tell us, it is much more likely to be struck by lightning, die from a tick bite or the aggression of grazing animals and domestic dogs.
Therefore, the occasional sightings of wolves in the natural environment as well as near inhabited centres, especially here in Trentino, should not arouse excessive safety concerns: in the margins of woods and meadows in close contact with the towns that characterize our territory, they live largely they also number the natural prey of wolves such as roe deer and deer. Occasional encounters with the species are therefore normal and must be faced by citizens and institutions with the attention that must be paid to any wild animal without falling into unjustified concerns, leaving to the experts any evaluations on those rare cases of "accustomed" or confidant wolves with respect to which immediate intervention by the institutions is necessary. Often, however, these problematic behaviors manifest themselves precisely due to the absence of those simple rules of behavior that it is necessary to adopt towards any wild animal, with respect to which it is of fundamental importance to better inform citizens: food scraps, rubbish and pet food must not be left in places accessible to wildlife and your dogs must be kept properly and never left free to roam, a phenomenon unfortunately frequent.
It is urgent today to start a shared path useful for the knowledge of large carnivores, which puts aside slogans and proclamations and which sees connoisseurs and professionals at the forefront alongside the institutions, with the aim of creating culture and knowledge among the inhabitants of the our Province. This is why our two Associations today formally requested a meeting with the Mayor of Trento Franco Ianeselli, the Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Trento Elisabetta Bozzarelli and the LIFE Wolfalps EU Project pertaining to MUSE - Trento Science Museum to develop together a range of cultural and cognitive proposals on wolves and large carnivores, and we have already started doing the same with other municipalities in the Province, so that we continue to create culture to encourage coexistence with these fascinating and controversial animals.
Photo by Benjamin Bryer