Uomini e lupi

Incontri al Museo per parlare di fauna
Le conferenze mensili dedicate ai segreti della vita del mondo animale delle Alpi, e non solo

Uomini e lupi
Monitoraggio, ricerca e coesistenza sui Monti Dinarici e le Alpi Orientali.

Miha Krofel - Department of Biology & Department of forestry, Biotechnical faculty, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

We will present the latest results of international cooperation in wolf monitoring and research in Slovenia and NE Italy. Basic characteristics of wolf biology in the region will be presented: pack structure and functioning, territoriality, dispersal, diet, predation, inter-specific interactions, role in the ecosystem etc. We will show different options for monitoring of wolf population and results from intensive monitoring of wolves in Slovenia. Data of 6 wolves collared with GPS-GSM collars within the Life SloWolf project will be presented, including the story of wolf Slavc - a young male from Slovenian-Croatian pack "Slavnik" that was collared in 2011 and after 5 months of monitoring of his life in the natal pack he dispersed into the Alps, crossing Slovenia, Austria and Italy, finally after more than 1000 km long path arriving to Lessinia Ragional Park in March 2012 where he established the first wolf pack in the region with a female wolf from the Apennines population. We will also present the analysis of livestock depredation by wolves in Slovenia and the results of testing of different damage prevention measures. In Slovenia it was observed that large part of depredations happened on small number of pastures, while most of the breeders in the wolf area never or rarely experienced damage. Majority of depredations happened on sheep, while attacks on cattle or horses were rare. Therefore we recommend transition from sheep to cattle or horse breeding where this is possible and depredations are frequent. Similarly to other studies, removal of wolves through sustainable hunting proved ineffective for preventing attacks on sheep. On the other hand, we experienced high success with the use of night enclosures made by electric fences. Presently we are also promoting the use of livestock guarding dogs. Using genetic analysis we also monitored the effects of wolf hunting that resulted in negative side-effects that greatly affected natural pack structure and functioning of the population. Great importance for wolf management is also public attitude toward wolves. In Slovenia we observed that in general people who coexist with wolves have positive attitude toward them. However, fear of wolf attack is still sometimes present, although there are no confirmed records of any person being injured by wolves.