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Now in danger of extinction, the wolf was once the most widespread mammal in Europe. The wolf is a large and potentially dangerous carnivore, so it is difficult to protect. Though opinion polls shaw that wolves are popular animals that most people agree should be protected, old fears and prejudices still continue throughout the world.
LifeStyle:
Wolves live and hunt in packs, which are usually extended families of an alpha, or dominant male, his mate, and their offspring. They usually stay within a home range but may wonder far outside their territory to hunt.
Wolves hunt and kill game up to 10 times heavier than they are. Wild reindeer, elk, and red deer are their favorite prey. Wolves will also eat much smaller animals such as mice and frogs. With the decline in the number of wild game, wolves have begun to prey on domestic horses, cattle, and dogs. Starving wolves will even eat potatoes, fruits buds, and lichen.
The alpha male and female mate between January and March. The cubs are born seven weeks later in a den dug among bushes or rocks. The male brings food back to the den, either by carrying it whole or by swallowing and then regurgitating it for his family to eat. As the cubs grow, the mother and other members of the pack help to feed them.
Wild Wolf Dogs
Wild wolves still survive in significant numbers in Italy, where the increasing shortage of natural prey has forced the wolf into giving up its pack hunting habits. It has become a lone hunter instead, scavenging for food around villages and farmhouses. Wolves will raid dumps and garbage cans.
Many rural villages have open dumps where the local slaughterhouse disposes of its waste parts and unwanted meat. The wolves feed there alongside feral, or stray dogs.
These dogs and wolves will mate occasionally and their offspring are often impossible to distinguish from ordinary dogs. These wild dogs deceptive appearance means that they are quite dangerous. Wild dogs may wonder freely through populated areas, unrecognized as wolves. they are wilder than their feral parents and can be extremely ferocious. They are often infected with rabies.
The Survivors:
European wolves have managed to survive only in the most remote, mountainous, or densely forested regions. Only four European countries have substantial numbers of wolves left. The Solviet Union, rumania, Greece, and Yugoslavia. Wild wolves are hard to count, so exact numbers are not known. Radio tracking is sometimes used. More details are know about the wolf in several other countries.
Italy: Officially protected, about 250 wolves live in remote mountainous areas. Projects financed by the World WIde Fund for Nature may enable to survive if farmers and herdsman can be persuaded to accept them.
Sweden: In spite of protective legislation, there are only five wolves in Sweden, of which there is only one one breeding pair.
Norway: Wolves are protected to the extent that a wolf may be killed legally only by a farmer protecting his livestock.
Spain and Portugal: In 1985, Group Lobo ws founded to protect the wolves surviving in the mountains on the Spanish/Portuguese border. wolves are not popular with local farmers, who claim that they lose many of their domestic stock and deer.
Conservation Measures:
The area where the European wolf can live without
coming into conflict with humans are decreasing. there is little
effective international agreement about the wolf's conservation.
All efforts to preserve the wolf are conducted locally.
To prevent the continued slaughter of Europe's endangered wolves, farmers are compensated for the death of stock. Unfortunately such systems are abused. lapp herdsman in the north of Sweden, for instance, have often blamed the deaths of their reindeer on the wolves rather tan on poor care.
It will take more than simple legislation to save the European wolf. People must educate to understand that this animal is not a ruthless predator, but a shy and intelligent creature.
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