From October 2020 to March 2021 about 1.000 cells of ten square kilometers distributed throughout the national territory will be searched. For the first time since the wolf was protected, national institutions join forces to photograph distribution and consistency at the same time from the Alps to Calabria, using sampling designs and advanced standardized protocols, developed by the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA). The Ministry of the Environment has given a mandate to ISPRA to produce an updated estimate of the distribution and consistency of the wolf at national level. To respond to this ambitious challenge, ISPRA has created a highly specialized working group, which involves zoologists and geneticists, and has activated a collaboration with Federparchi Europarc Italia (the Italian Federation of Parks and Natural Reserves) and with the LIFE WolfAlps-EU project.
"The wolf is one of the best known species in Italy, but also one of the most elusive and difficult to study", explains Dr. Piero Genovesi, head of the Wildlife Coordination Service of ISPRA. “All the projects activated so far on this carnivore have had a local character and limited in time, limiting the possibility of producing an accurate estimate at the national level; in order to produce an updated and accurate estimate we have involved all the local authorities, starting from Regions and National Parks, and we have activated a collaboration with the Forestry Carabinieri ”. ISPRA experts, with the support of a pool of university researchers, have combined a design by probabilistic sampling with the most advanced survey techniques tested on the species, to obtain an estimate of the wolf population and its distribution.
Between October 2020 and March 2021, field data will be collected based on homogeneous operational protocols, patrolling pre-established paths in approximately 1.000 cells of ten square kilometers distributed throughout the national territory; the results of the national monitoring will be made public and illustrated in detail, in order to provide a credible and authoritative scientific knowledge base. In the same period, the LIFE WOLFALPS-EU project will coordinate and carry out a similar sampling in the Alpine regions, from Liguria to Friuli-Venezia Giulia. ISPRA will ensure a training course, also through online forms, for the technical staff involved and an Application will be produced, downloadable by about 4000 monitoring operators, which uses standardized protocols also used in other European countries. Collaborations are also being activated with the various associations who are present at national and local level, and who can make an important cognitive contribution with their extensive network of volunteers.
WELL IT WAS NOW SO AT LEAST IN ITALY; WILL WE KNOW THE TRUE AGROFORESTAL DENSITY OVER 100 HECTARES, OF THE WOLF SPECIES?