Sightings and solutions
On the wolf issue in the city The LAC, the League for the Abolition of Hunting, also expressed its opinion. Here's his summary: "Regarding the question from Regional Council Vice President Giacomo Rossi regarding wolf sightings in residential areas, in which he states that 'Councilor Bugaro has already contacted mayors, including through the Prefects, communicating the possibility of implementing the ISPRA protocol that provides for the capture of specimens in problematic cases and their subsequent release in suitable areas,' the aim is simply to deceive citizens and delude them with vain and unrealistic solutions. First, because the wolf, despite its downgrading, remains a protected species, and therefore it cannot be up to mayors, prefects, or even individual regions to decide whether, how, and when to "capture" any wolf specimens in a given territory and relocate them to other "suitable areas." Second, because that same territory, which may also include residential areas, "freed" of wolves would quickly be reoccupied by another wolf pack."
The deaths of wolves
The size of a wolf pack's territory (a pack consists of 5 or 6 wolves at most) in the Apennines varies between 120 and 200 km², and its size depends primarily on the availability of prey. Each pack demarcates its territory with feces and urine, and kills any foreign wolf that dares enter. Therefore, if the "occupying" pack were to move or be eliminated, that territory would immediately be reoccupied by another wolf pack. Furthermore, it is not true that the wolf population in Italy is "greatly expanding." A wolf pack, in fact, is composed of an "Alpha" pair, the only one that reproduces, and two or three offspring of the pair. Wolves reproduce once a year, and a pair of wolves gives birth to two to six pups, half of which, on average, do not survive the following year. The surviving pups remain with their mother and the pack for a maximum of one or two years, then are removed and disperse in search of new homes. new territories and of these wolves, on average, only 1 in 4 survives. Furthermore, every year it is estimated that between 200 and 500 wolves in Italy die from gunfire, poison, traps, or being hit by cars. Therefore, it is practically impossible for their numbers to increase; in fact, it is much more likely that they will decrease."
The farms
Considering that in the latest monitoring of 2021, ISPRA recorded the presence of approximately 3.300 wolves throughout Italy, it is clear how low their density is in Italy and how the wolf has now completely saturated its "range" in Italy, almost entirely reoccupying its "historic" territory from which it was exterminated in the mid-70s. It is absolutely not true that the wolf preys primarily on farmed or domestic animals and that this type of predation is on the rise. In fact, the wolf's diet is over 70% wild boar, of which it preys on the youngest individuals, thus contributing to the "aging" of the ungulate population, stabilizing it at tolerable numbers in the territories it controls. This is demonstrated by the latest available data on wild boar culling in "programmed" and "controlled" hunts, which confirm a sharp decline in the wild boar population, precisely thanks to the wolf's fundamental role at the top of the food pyramid! For another 25% of its diet is made up of other ungulates (roe deer, deer, fallow deer, etc.) and the nutria, an alien and invasive species, while less than 5% is made up of farmed and pet animals, which are preyed upon exclusively because they are left unattended and without guard dogs (Abruzzo shepherds) or without effective protection measures.
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