Wilderness (AIW): The wolf problem

Wilderness (AIW): The wolf problem is getting worse

Italian Association for Wilderness (AIW)

THE WOLF PROBLEM IS GROWING SERIOUSLY BETWEEN FRANCE, PIEDMONT, AND LIGURIA

And only conferences, chatter and scientific studies to solve it.

Now in Val Bormida many are afraid of wolves (the mushroom picking itself is endangered by this fear). And they are also right to be afraid, because these wolves that finally invaded the Val Bormida ARE NOT APENNINIAN WOLVES: they are the children of those wolves released in France about twenty years ago, who, precisely because they were used to the food that the men, have handed down behavioral knowledge to new generations: where there is man there is food! They are larger, more robust, more "violent" wolves, less fearful of man than the Italian wolves which, precisely because they are Italian like all southern species, are smaller in size.

Now people are afraid, and it is a normal reaction for populations that weren't used to the wolf for at least a hundred years; a population that still has reminiscence of the tales of the old, of the ancient past; stories certainly also inflated, but not entirely unreal. If the wolf has been included in so many fairy tales as the "beast", there must be a reason, and the reason is that probably many of those facts were true.

If people are afraid, then there is a reason.

For decades, the undersigned has foreseen (had foreseen) the arrival of these wolves, obviously from the west, that is, from Cuneo's Piedmont and therefore from France; wolves of Central European origin (with some doubts about other phenotypes, perhaps also Asian and American), kept in enclosures for a long time before their probable release. So, in Val Bormida they finally arrived INCONFUTABLY, and they are many and they are finally filling that "hole" between the provinces of Imperia and La Spezia that had remained empty or half-empty for decades, and that naturalists were waiting for it to be filled with arrivals from the east and south, with the slow and progressive growth of the Apennine population (as scholars claim, but only on the basis of a bias and certainly not because it is irrefutably proven); but which has instead been filled with arrivals from the west, with the growth of the so-called Alpine population, mysteriously "exploded" between France and Piedmont.

Now, other environmental associations (not to mention anti-hunt animalists!) Continue to tell the fairy tale of the arrival from the Apennines, if not from the distant Abruzzo, basing their rumors on questionable DNA analyzes and on equally questionable observations on a single animal that , released in the surroundings of Parma it is proven that he then arrived in the Cuneo area where he was immediately killed by the "French" wolves: as if a swallow were making spring! Obviously, no evidence of the reverse, because, coincidentally, since the wolves appeared in France and Piedmont, no catches and radio collars have ever been known to prove the contrary (and if there have been, they have also been kept hidden, while the Wolf "Alberto" - or "Ezechiele" - has been widely spoken, as if the aim were to demonstrate an Apennine origin that if not predetermined at the table at least was desired by many!

With the help of politicians, always sensitive to any project that attracts money, fauna biologists are spending millions of euros to study (salaried!) The wolf, but not a euro has ever been spent to study the origin of these wolves. Piedmontese and now Valbormidesi. They study biology and behavior (as if the mountains of books and scientific studies that already report everything about these things, and repetitively, were not enough). The only thing that needed and must understand to answer the questions that no one answers (or you answer lying knowing you are lying) is: WHERE DO THESE WOLVES COME FROM? WHY ARE THEY SO PHENOTYPICALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE APENNINE WOLF? WHY ARE THEY SO LITTLE AFRAID OF MAN? On these questions that people ask themselves, TOTAL SILENCE or ... lies!

Now the WWF comes to tell us that "we must prevent other wolves from the Apennines from reaching France, because they would kill them in France" (and thank goodness that also France, as well as Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden has a more practical and realistic view of the problem!); that is, they require a "barrier" which seems rather necessary to prevent these Alpine Wolves from polluting the Apennine and certainly Italian population (but perhaps they require it precisely because they know about this risk of genetic pollution; or not that Italian wolves reach France, but that the "Franco-Alpine" ones end up predominating over the Apennine ones!). This is what public opinion wants and must know. Not the usual textbook denials on the hypothetical non-existent risk that these alpine wolves could be dangerous for humans. Irrational fear cannot be eliminated by telling fairy tales or by proposing the purchase of Abruzzo and Maremma sheepdogs which, according to them, would keep wolves away: another gigantic lie that any shepherd of those districts can deny: because only BRANCHI of those dogs can, but only in some cases, drive away wolves, and there are not a few cases of Abruzzese dogs torn to pieces by wolves (not for nothing to avoid this they are often equipped with defensive collars!). But how much does it cost to keep a pack of dogs? This they do not tell us, because in the meantime the costs would be borne by the owners of herds!

Then they come to tell us the manual tale of the wolf who controls the herds of wild boars, deer and roe deer: a truth valid only for the vast and wild Nordic lands where, as in Italy, the weakest link in their food chain does not exist. it is always and in any case the pet, including dogs. Nor do they tell us that in any case predations on wildlife are never such as to keep herbivorous species in balance (you can only read this in naturalists' manuals!): At most they significantly reduce their number or only happen in particular situations. The truth is that the number of wild boars and wolves must be kept low with human actions, which means killing by hunting controls and after super-partes censuses. History teaches; the whole world teaches, but as usual the Italians are blind and deaf to these teachings and propose the usual palliative methods, causing the wolf problem, as well as the equally and more serious boar problem, to worsen more and more, up to to exasperate those who are afraid of these animals, especially by reading about the increasingly frequent cases of aggression or accidents, even fatal; not to mention the millions of euros in damages that NO ONE pays, except those who suffer them!

Murialdo 7 September 2015

Frank Zunino

AIW General Secretary