European Wolf Newsletter Number 2

European
Wolf
Newsletter
European Subgroup of the IUCN Wolf Specialist Group

Inhalt
	Preface (by Christoph Promberger)
	European Wolf Literature (by Dr. Henryk Okarma)
	Conference on European Wolf Migrations Conference in NeuchÉtel, Switzerland.
	Books, Brochures, Leaflets Latest wolf resources
	Scientific Wolf Literature Scientific publications

News
from different countries

Projects
from different countries

Croatia
Wolf in Croatia Under Full Legal Protection

England/Alps
Wolf Trek

Estonia
Wolf Population Increase

France
The Wolf's Comeback

Minnesota/Croatia
Duro Huber Guest Speaker at the International Wolf Center

Poland
Nets - a new Wolf Capture Method

Scotland
Restoration of Highland Forest Ecosystem

Germany / Europe
Public awareness and fundraising-campaign

Poland
Wolf Ecology (East Carpathians)
Wolf Ecology (Bialowieza Primeval Forest)

Romania
Ecology and Human Interactions (Carpathians)

Slovakia
Wolf Ecology and Livestock Guarding Dogs

United Kingdom
The Highland Wolf Fund (HWF)

after the first edition of this newsletter I received a lot of encouraging letters which show that there was a need for such a communication tool. We have continued and here is the second edition.
Croatia can celebrate the greatest success in wolf conservation since we founded the European Wolf Network in 1992. In Croatia, the wolf has been fully protected now since May 17th, 1995. Our compliments to Duro Huber and his Croatian Wolf Group, who are responsible for this milestone in European wolf conservation. Duro has always pointed out the international commitment of Croatia in preserving their wolves and received the support of the European Wolf Network. The success shows how much more can be archieved through an international cooperation and how necessary a network is.
In September, wolf recovery specialists and representatives from the administrations will meet in NeuchÉtel, Switzerland. They will work out a wolf recovery strategy for the responsible administrations, how to manage wolf expansion. With such a tool in hand it should be much easier to convince the administrations to set up recovery and management plans. And this is what we need for a coexistence between wolves and humans.
Thanks again to Europe Conservation France for the financial and logistic support, to Barbara Douglas and Carl Willis for correcting our English, and to Andreas Zedrosser and Kay-Uwe Hartleb in helping with organizing.

The European Wolf Network is a great idea for bringing wolf people together.But it is also a unique chance to summarize what had been done in Europe in the field of wolf research. We all need such information, not only scientists but also the general public. In several countries scientists are about to start projects on various aspects of wolf biology. These people are often "newcomers"; they need information where, what, and how results have already been achieved. Even biologists having long worked with wolves are not always aware of important results published in neighboring countries in local languages.

That is why I offer myself to create a reliable bibliograhy containing all European scientific references on wolves (however, not including popular articles). I have already collected a lot of wolf literature from different countries and now would like to ask everybody who is interested in a European Wolf Network to send me full references of scientific wolf literature from their own countries (everything published after 1945). If a publication is not in English, German, or French, please give me also an English translation of the title and up to 5 key-words. Preferably, I would like to obtain copies of these publications.

This literature file will then be available to everybody through Internet and, if you send me a diskette, I will get it back to you with the latest updated bibliography of European wolf literature in Papyrus Bibliographical System (version 7.0.2) format and/or Word Perfect 5.1. (I only need your declaration that you have a legal copy of this software). I am looking forward to help building up a further Network.

Dr. Henryk Okarma
Mammal Research Institute
Polish Academy of Sciences
17-230 Bialowieza
Poland

An International Conference on European Wolf Migrations will be held in NeuchÉtel, Switzerland on September 17-20, 1995. The conference will include one day of oral presentations and poster sessions in the evenings. The European Wolf Network wil conduct a two-day workshop with wolf recovery specialists from all over the world and people from European conservation administrations to come up with a strategy for the administrations to properly manage wolf expansion. The auditory will be included into the workshop. On the last day of the conference, the IUCN/SSC Wolf Specialist Group will hold its 1995 meeting.

After the Croatian Wolf Group proclaimed 1994 to be "The year of the wolf" and on January 28th, 1994 submitted the "Proposal for the legal protection of wolves in Croatia" to the parliament, life for wolves in Croatia gradually changed to a more promising direction. First it was removed from the list of game species in the new "Hunting Law" of 1994. Then on May 17th, 1995 the wolf was protected according to the "Nature protection law". Any act harming the wolf is now a crime with fines up to the equivalent of 35.000 $US. However, legal protection alone will not save the wolves. The need for intensive work on the "Croatian wolf management plan" is now becoming increasingly important. We know that trouble will start with the first major damage the wolves inflict and when the state is asked for compensation. We should be ready before someone starts doubting that the protection of wolves was a correct decision.

(Duro Huber, Biology Department, Veterinary Faculty, Heinzelova 55, HR-10000 Zagreb)

1000 km across the alps for the conservation of European wolves. British mushers and the Munich Wildlife Society are going to organize an expedition of man and dog in the Alps in February/March of 1996. The goal of this enterprise is a campagne to raise funds and public awareness for wolf conservation. Three teams of British adventurers have risen to challenge to make the 1000 km journey between Turin and Vienna through the snow covered mountains acompanied by Sibirian huskies.

(Mark Millington, London, UK; Kay-Uwe Hartleb, Munich Wildlife Society, Linderhof 2, 82488 Ettal, Germany)

Due to decreasing persecution wolves have seemed to increase over the course of the last five years in Estonia. Main causes of decreasing hunting were the abolishment of bounties, an essential rise in the price of petrol, reducing the mobility of many hunters, and the disbandment of wolf-hunting groups at hunters’ clubs. Mild winters are believed to have contributed to the increase in wolf numbers, too. With higher wolf numbers damage to livestock has increased and will probably continue to do so. The public ist increasingly demanding wolf control such as litter destruciton.

(Ilmar Rootsi, Estonian Naturalists Society, K.E. v. Baeri 1-4, EE-2400 Tartu, Estonia)

Human persecution has lead to the extinction of the wolf in France in the 1930’s. Now, some 70 years later, wolves are permanently living again in the Maritime Alps at the French/Italian border. They imigrated from Italy where the population has expanded for the last 20 years. At the end of the winter 1993-94, at least six wolves were forming the first pack observed in France. During the last winter (1994-95) the population was represented by one pack of eight wolves and another one of at least two wolves. The area occupied by wolves was at least 250 km" during the last winter. 60.000 to 70.000 sheep graze the National Park during summer, 20.000 of them within the range of wolves. The French Environment Ministry finances, through the National Park budget, various protection systems which are proposed to shepherds working in the wolf areas. Furthermore compensation is paid by the "Fonds Fran�ais pour la Nature et l’Environnement". Thirty-six animals were apparently killed by wolves in 1993, for which 57.200 FF (approx. 11.400 $US) have been paid to shepherds. In 1994, with 98 sheep killed and 24 injured (of which 21 died afterwards), compensation payments reached about 200.000 FF (about 40.000 $US). Between January and early June 1995, 50 and 24 sheep have been killed and injured, respectively.

(B. Lequette, T. Houard, M.L. Poulle, and T. Dahier, Parc National du Merantour, Service Scientifique, 23 rue d’Italie, B.P. 316, 06006 Nice, France)

Duro Huber from the Croatian Wolf Group has been invited to be the international guest speaker for 6 weeks this summer in the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota. He will also have a chance to join their wolf study team and learn the techniques of capturing and tracking wolves.

(Duro Huver, Biology Department, Veterinary Faculty, Heinzelova 55, HR-41000 Zagreb)

By snow-tracking and telemetry we have localized wolves in their day resting places and then surrounded the forest area with the wolves inside "fladry" (= ropes with flags attached to them). For unknown reasons wolves are afraid of fladry and will not cross this barrier. In one place the fladry line is replaced by 100 m long by 3 m high nets. Then wolves are driven by a line of beaters towards the nets where wolves become tangled in nets. We caught several wolves with this method during the recent winter and managed to radio-collar one of them. We are now improving the method and hope that capturing wolves with nets could be an important supplementary tool.

(Henryk Okarma, Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, PL-17-230 Bialowieza)

Last winter, Wolf Schroeder and Christoph Promberger from the Munich Wildlife Society were invited to the Scottish Highlands by a group of independent ecologists interested in the restoration of the forest ecosystem in the Scottish Highlands. We were most interested in the regeneration projects for the native forests, the need to reduce the numbers of red deer and also by the debate about the role of the lost mammals in the future ecology of the Scottish forests. There was an active debate about the merits of the reintroduction of various species, including beaver, wild boar and wolf. During our visit, when we were taken by Roy Dennis to many parts of the Scottish Highlands, we were able to agree with local ecologists that conditions in relation to habitat and food were present for most of the species under discussion. We also agree with them that the views of the local communitites in the Highlands are of utmost importance and that any reintroduction proposal will require considerable local discussion and debate. This is paricularly true in the case of the wolf where conflict with the present methods of sheep husbandry would be of particular concern to farmers. The people we met were concerned that this process will not be helped by people from outwith the Highlands, and particularly from England, thrusting ideas for reintroduction on the local people of the Highlands. We were encouraged to know that a group of local conservation people were working away in a quiet manner to promote the reintroduction of the lost mammals. The successful recovery programs for red kite and white-tailed eagle demonstrate the desire to redress the activities of the past in Scotland.

(Christoph Promberger and Wolfgang Schroeder, Munich Wildlife Society, Linderhof 2, 82488 Ettal, Germany).
See also project column "United Kingdom"

The European Union has declared the wolf to be one of Europes especially endangered species. Legal protection, however, is obviously not sufficient to help conserve a species that is still declared to be an enemy to humans. This is why Euronature (European Natural Heritage Fund) - a European-wide active organization for nature protection - has joined up with the experienced biologists and wolf protectors of the European Wolf Network. The emphasis of Euronature is to do widespread lobbying for wolves with officials and the entire public via profound public awareness campaigns. With this information and knowledge exchange education and publicity is combined with the raising of funds from private and institutional donators to support the practical work of the Munich Wildlife Society and other institutions in the European Wolf Network for the protection of one of the most impressive wild animals of our continent.

(Martin Schneider-Jacoby and Susanne Hess, Euronature, Guettinger Str. 19, 79315 Radolfzell, Germany)

The study has been conducted in the Bieszczady Mountains (within the transboundary Biosphere Reserve "East Carpathians") since 1988. Wolf diet, prey selection and wolf/livestock interactions (including the effectiveness of livestock guarding dogs in protection of flocks of sheep). Pack and territory size of a wolf pack based on snow tracking has also been investigated. Influence of hunting on wolf number has been monitored as well. Based on this study, a Wolf Conservation Plan for the Krosno Province (which incorporate the Bieszczady Mountains) was prepared. The wolf study will be continued with use of radiotelemetry.

(Wojciech Smietana, Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Lubicz 46, PL-31-512 Krakow)

Since March 1994, three wolves have been radio-collared. Two wolves were trapped in modified black bear leg-snares and one was caught with nets. For the latter, we have combined an old method of driving wolves into nets using ropes with color flags, so called 'fladry' (see news-column). In February 1995 a radio-collar of the first wolf failed after only 11 month in operation. Shortly thereafter, we caught another wolf from this pack. This wolf and a second wolf from a different pack are localized daily. Additionally, once a month, a continous 5-day tracking session is carried out for each wolf. One pack is 6 or 7 individuals, the other one consists of 4 or 5 animals. We obtain data on activity, pattern of home range utilization, and territory size. Both pack territories are about 150-200 km" (Minimum Convex Polygon with 100% localizations).

(Henryk Okarma and Wlodzimierz Jedrzejewski, Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, 17-230 Bialowieza)

The project started a year ago and has finished the initial phase of building up the neccessary infrastructure. The first radiocollared wolf in Romanian history was shot at a hunters bait site shortly after we started to monitor it for the winter season. The carcass was recovered and analyzed without finding diseases. A second wolf, alpha female of a pack of three, was radiotagged in March 1995. She dug a den and gave birth to pups not even three kilometers from the city of Brasov, with 340.000 inhabitants second largest city of Romania. The pack is using an area of approximately 120 km" and has almost half a million people living at the boundaries of its territory. The wolves have, completely integrated with people, killing sheep regularly from four herds in their territory, crossing the main roads and railway tracks, and have even visited the wolf-enclosure in the zoo of Brasov. By the end of June, the pack had moved its rendezvous-site to a spot even closer to Brasov just 50 m from a regularly used tourist trail. Summer work will focus on the relationship of these wolves with the people in the area. For the first time, two British tourist groups visited the project as part of a trip through the Carpathians. Ecotourism is planned to be further developed through the project.

(Christoph Promberger, Munich Wildlife Society, Ovidiu Ionescu, Ion Munteanu, Doru Stancu - all I.C.A.S. Bucuresti, Sos. Stefanesti 128, RO-Bucharest, and Annette Mertens, University of Rome)

The wolf research project in Tatra National Park has been going on since 1993. Preliminary results of our radio-collared wolf pack in the Park indicate a pack size of 10 wolves including four pups of 1994. The estimated home range is 150-180 km". The pack used mainly forested areas in lower elevations. Based on scat analysis and carcasses found, the main prey species was red deer. Most of the carcasses were located in valley bottoms along the river which forms the Polish-Slovakian border. New research efforts are now being undertaken in the low Tatra mountain region. We have started snow-tracking, collecting scats and locating carcasses. The use of livestock guarding dogs will be integrated into the project as was done in Tatra National Park.

(Slavomir Findo, Forest Research Institute, Masarykova 22, SK-96092 Zvolen, and Guenter Bloch, Society for the Protection of Wolves, Von-Goltstein-Str. 1, 53902 Bad Muenstereifel)

The last wolves in Britain died out in the 17th century. The purpose of the HWF is to promote their recovery in the Scottish Highlands. The Scottish Highlands is 25,000 km" im area, the largest, least populated region in Europe outside Russia and Scandinavia, and well stocked with large wild prey. So compared with elsewhere in Europe, wolves would have space, minimal conflict with human developments, and abundant wild food. The Fund was started in autumn 1994 as a project of the Carnivore Wildlife Trust. Trees for Life, a Scottish organization working to restore the Caledorian forest, is a partner in the Fund, and several British wolf societies and individuals have joined. Our immediate aim is to raise 35,000 (US% 52,000) to commission an Environmental Impact Study. Our long-term aim, when our first wolves are back, is to develop a wolf education centre in the Highlands. A wolf population would generate income, employment and other benefits for the Highlands and pay for themselves in a long-run through ecotourism; the revenue from visitors will go into a fund to compensate farmers and to wolf conservation. The HWF has been widely reported in the newspapers, radio and TV. Last March in Scotland we had the first public meeting to debate a wolf reintroduction. A few days later BBC TV held a nationwide phone-in vote and 75 per cent favoured a wolf reintroduction.

(Roger Panaman, Highland Wolf Fund, 35 Church St, Kidlington, Oxford, Britain)
See also news-column ‘Scotland’

Ecology and Conservation of Wolves in a Changing World (by L.N. Carbyn, S.H. Fritts and D.R. Seip (eds.)). The proceedings of the 'Second North American Wolf Symposium" from 1992. They provide the history of wolf management in North America, a review of the status of wolves in Canada, USA, Greenland and the trans-Himalaya region, recovery programs in North America, wolf-prey interactions, taxonomy, diseases and physiology, research and management techniques.

Vuk ili da li je crvenkapica pojela vuka? (Wolf - or did Little Red Ridinghood eat the Wolf?) In Croatian and English; produced by the Croatian Natural History Museum, Demetrova 1, 10000 Zagreb). A brochure, produced for large exhibition, which introduces wolf conservation and the activities of the Croatian Wolf Group. It also includes information about the life of wolves, status of wolves in Croatia, and the need to protect wolves.

The Company of Wolves (by Peter Steinhart; Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. New York, ISBN 0-679-41881-4). A book about people who live and deal with wolves. P. Steinhart shows why this elusive species has taken center stage in the debate over the preservation and use of the wilderness. He describes and discusses different recovery programs in North America and talks to some of the "alpha" wolf biologists, to trappers, hunters, and ranchers.

Le Loup - son retour en france (The Wolf - its comeback in France). Available in French only, 28pp; produced by Société nationale de protection de la nature, BP 405, 75221 Paris Cedex 05, France. A brochure which contains information on the history of wolf extinction, distribution within France, chronology of their return, general biology, social behavior, activity patterns, predation and livestock.

Page published by Oliver Matla in 1997
Contents taken from the European Wolf Newsletter, edited by the European Wolf Networkand published with assistance of Europe Conservation France.