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There has been some hybridization with wild dogs, with the result that Brother Wolf, who until a few years ago feared man and was difficult to see (and I testify that in the 70s I spent nights in the open in the vain hope to take it back) today I see it trotting off quietly from the boar's calatoi when I am stationed for the selection hunt. It is easy to see it near open-air garbage dumps and even on the outskirts of cities. Despite its recent expansion, however, the Apennine wolf has never reached the Alps. Whatever anyone says. Until recently, its traces stopped between the Garfagnana and Liguria. Then again we found them on the border with France, between the Maritime Alps and the province of Cuneo. It's the alpine wolf, let's call it that. It was from France that he left, and more precisely from Mercantour. From there it colonized almost the entire Alpine arc, especially in Piedmont, then also in Lombardy, Switzerland and even Austria. But it was convenient to demonstrate the success of the well-paid initiatives in defense of the Apennine wolf.
Environmentalists and researchers have thus argued that this recent invasion is proof of the success of their work, and that these are slanders. But how many wolves are there in Italy? The greatest Italian expert, prof. Luigi Boitani., In an interview on January 14th, replied more or less like this: no one knows. There are only local estimates. But how? They have been studying wolves for 40 years, counting them, measuring them, following them in their movements, counting them with their ridiculous wolfhowling (the verses made by the lupari) spending millions of euros of European funds, and now it is not known how many there are? And all the figures that the WWF announces annually in newspapers and websites? Figures made up? In 2010, Franco Zunino, who knows wolves, tried an estimate, putting together official data, ascertained birth rates and presumed deaths. Making a downward calculation, he believed that there were no less than 4 thousand and five hundred. Professor Francesca Marrucco, states in an interview that the wolves of the Alps come from France (but look, too?) And estimates their annual growth at 11 percent. But then do you know how many wolves there are or don't you want to tell? However, there are many, too many, if only 60 of them died on the roads of Piedmont, the camera traps positioned on the hillsides increasingly testify to the aggression of the wolf to young wild boars. Thousands of sheep have been slaughtered, because of them many breeders and herdsmen have suspended their activities, the casual encounters of hikers and mushroom hikers are more and more frequent. The French authorities, in an attempt to solve the problem, first imported the Abruzzese-Maremma shepherd dogs in an attempt to defend the flocks, then they came to authorize some killing.
In Switzerland they shoot the wolf and the same in Austria. Another question to Boitani: are they expanding? The answer: in the Apennines no, but in the Alps yes. But why, one wonders? If they are all of Apennine origin (according to the pseudo-scientific vulgate), has the libido of those left at home dropped, while that of the Alpine troops is increasing? But if that's the case, well, we'll all go to Sestrière next year too. But isn't it that Boitani finally admits that they are two different populations? The interview was published on January 13th. Less than ten days later, on January 22, an important conference was held in Cuneo, during which Professor Boitani, the Italian Zoological Union, and the Piedmontese WWF representative Riccardo Fortima, opened a glimpse: in a forthcoming the management of the wolf species will have to be considered in the future, but to an extent not exceeding 5 per cent of the estimated population. I must say that already in October 2014, again in an interview, the same prof. Boitani said that numerical control should also be provided for the wolf population. I believe in his good faith, which will soon put him in conflict with ENPA, LAC, LAV, and all the acronyms of our local environmentalism. But a sprite suggests an evil thought to me. But doesn't it seem like a political response to the demands of the farmers, the herdsmen, the farmers' unions, to the “popular furor”? A political response "secured" by the declared impossibility of taking a census of wolf populations? Professor Luigi: tell me no!
