Particularly Protected Fauna: Seven wolves for Juliet and Slavc. For the second time, the first pair of wolves in the Eastern Alps, formed in 2012 by the encounter between a male specimen of Dinaric origin and an Italic wolf female, reproduced in the Veronese Lessinia..
The State Forestry Corps reports this on its website. "The happy event" it is specified "was ascertained in recent days thanks to the careful and constant monitoring carried out by the staff of the State Forestry Corps of the Bosco Chiesanuova Station Command and that of the Lessinia Park".
The reunification of two populations (the Italian and the Balkan ones) no longer in contact for centuries with the formation of a family nucleus, today the only one known for the Eastern Alps, «is a fact of high biological and conservation value. The wolf litters documented so far in the Alps generally consist of 3-4 young, which are generally born between August and September, up to a maximum of 7, rarely the litter reaches ten, as in the case ascertained in 2010 in Val Chisone (TO ), with nine specimens ".
The high mortality rate of puppies during the first winter (about 60% -80% after the first year of life) and the natural propensity to move away from the original nucleus, allow the herd to self-regulate numerically. In fact, the young generally remain in the family nucleus up to 1-2 years of life, helping parents to raise the new born and learning hunting techniques and behavioral modules for pack life from adults, until reaching adulthood. and the consequent detachment from it. They then travel several hundreds of km in search of a free territory to occupy and an individual of the opposite sex with which to found a new herd. Some specimens instead lead a solitary life, such as the case of M24 present for several years in Trentino-Alto Adige.
The species, “particularly protected” by national and community regulations, plays an important role at the top of the food pyramid in the Alpine and pre-Alpine ecosystem. The wolf's diet is made up on average of about 90% of wild ungulates, with attacks on domestic livestock linked to the accessibility of the same. To date, the predations on domestic animals ascertained in the Verona area in 2014 amount to a total of 11 animals, one of which survived the attack.
This special guest, extremely shy and elusive, does not represent any danger to man and being able to observe him in nature is an exceptional and fortuitous event. As evidenced by the data relating to the remaining Italian territory, the Apennines and the western Alps, in the face of several hundred animals present, no case of aggression against humans has ever been documented in the last century.
Valtellina News
25.08.2014