Wilderness: Science Against Logic: Commitment to Serious Biodiversity Policy. It's easy to say Wolf. But which wolf lives, lived and still (or again) inhabits Italy? It may seem like a question of goat's wool, but it is serious, scientifically serious.
At the beginning of the last century the well-known zoologist Giuseppe Altobelli described and determined the subspecificity of the Apennine wolf, an animal never studied in this respect before, and came to scientifically establish, even if today questioned by modern science that can make use of the analysis of the mapping genetic (although not yet perfect), the existence of a subspecies of southern wolf, which he named Canis lupus italicus, to distinguish it from the wolf of the north and most of Europe, which science has cataloged as Canis lupus lupus. I do not know how much these distinctions can still be valid today, but it is certain that both the wolf of central and southern Italy, as well as the wolf that lives in Iberia (Spain and Portugal) are decidedly different in phenotype, and in size and color. of the mantle, from those of the surviving populations in central-eastern and northern Europe; two elements, however important, albeit perhaps due to environmental situations and adaptations, which however must be recognized and, as far as possible, respected. Today the hybridization risk, which is talked about so much between wolf and dog, is actually a much more current risk factor among the various wolf populations existing in Europe than with hypothetical feral dogs; and in particular it is for that population of wolves now widely present in the western Alps as there are heavy clues regarding its real origin, passed for Italic, but which probably is not. And the risk is that this population was "created" with introductions that took place in France starting from the early 90s of the last century (but also, it seems - according to some rumors that ran at the time and that it would have been the case of verify - from an unexpected leakage of specimens from Eastern Europe from the zoosafari of Murazzano in the Langhe of Cuneo), using specimens of wolves kept in captivity and whose geographical origin is no longer possible to trace due to the many crossings occurred in the enclosures where they are specimens of wolves of various origins (even from America and Mongolia!) were kept, as the first photographs and / or filmed shots of these specimens present in the Alps seem to want to demonstrate (and, not for nothing, almost all of them today unavailable or " secreted "by the organisms that spread them). Today it is therefore important to establish as soon as possible a genetic map of the wolves originally present in the Alps, to be made through the finds still found in museums (personally I am aware of a skin never recorded by any institute, museum or scholar!), In order to determine which Wolf lived there. An operation that, if we were a serious country, we should have done right from the start of these observations, rather than blindly (and obtusely!) Trusting what those who wanted "any wolf as long as there was a wolf" told us, giving their provenance from the Apennines is taken for granted, when it was obvious that this could not be since they were morphologically and temperamentally very different specimens, therefore signs of a hypothetical, and kept hidden, liberation that took place on the French side, and in particular starting from the area of Mercantour National Park where, coincidentally, the first wolf was found with evident signs of having worn a collar.
And the same goes for the Apennine population, and in particular for that of the center-south, but also of that, nourished, present in Emilia Romagna, where already today there are many anomalies and hybridization phenomena (with specimens of the Alpine population? wolves?) not found elsewhere (do not forget that there were also doubts for the first reports of wolves - in packs - in internal Genoese Liguria). There will then perhaps be a problem of interbreeding for the populations that now occupy the entire Ligurian arc, with two major presences, one in the east, from the south to La Spezia, and one in the west from France to the Savona area, with other sparse intermediate present. who never created those populations instead - and literally! - exploded to the east in the Parma area and throughout Emilia Romagna, and to the west in the Cuneo area between Piedmont and France. A sector, the Ligurian one, to try to transform into a barrier so that the two populations maintain their genetic characteristics, leaving the phenomenon of interbreeding to natural evolution and, possibly, not favoring it, so that the original Apennine population continues to maintain the own genetic characteristics of southern subspecies. Providing instead for the selection of the Alpine population, through the absolute elimination of all the specimens whose genetic mapping should reveal a situation of interbreeding between various subspecies; then yes, we can speak, on the one hand of the Alpine population, favoring the subspecies of central-eastern European origin, and on the other of the Apennine population (the presence of increasingly numerous herds in the north-west of the French Alps, in the Vosges and in Switzerland - we also speak of Germany - it also suggests some other introduction operation, because the herds are not created in a short time, and sometimes it takes years and years before a few occasional individuals for dispersal, create real populations !).
The same curiosity and haste to engage in research and studies on the presence of the wolf in the Alps, if they had come from the Apennines, has little logical explanation, given that the wolf is more present, precisely in the Apennines. A research that is justified very little if the herds were created autonomously by mere and simple expansion of the population; but that instead becomes very interesting if the wolves were reintroduced! It was then necessary to understand how they would behave, how they would occupy the new territory, what problems they created for the local populations of wild and domestic ungulates. Investigations and researches increasingly increased (especially between Piedmont and Emilia Romagna, and today Liguria), while all have disinterested in the expansion towards the South (although known, strangely, there are no researches in central and southern Italy!), Probably right in how much, yes, of clear and undoubted natural origin! New populations of animals are always studied, whether they are created naturally or artificially; the simple expansions of their ranges are rarely studied: at most we take note of them. Instead, in this case there was a real explosion of studies and research ... and of funding to support them! At least an anomalous interest. Unless you want to understand how successful a reintroduction operation studied and carried out by someone has had! Today, however, there is an abyss between the studies on the wolf in the North and the indifference of the populations in the South! Why? In the South, you will see, the research will begin to be done, only when someone will have proceeded to reintroduce the wolf in Sicily! Same operation, same studies! Finally, as usual, everyone talks about the "recolonization of wolves from Italy", but EVERYBODY says it by hearsay, by mere repetition of a rumor that has never been proved even circumstantially. It is said because it MUST BE TRUE beyond any reasonable doubt. That reasonable doubt that the Commission of the French Parliament has ascertained with great seriousness (and which in Italy everyone pretends to ignore!). In my interventions I have repeatedly referred to a documentary on the wolf in France released in Italy by National Geographic (shot only a few years after the first reports in the Franco-Piedmontese Alps) in which, coincidentally, practically never is mentioned, much less his arrival from Italy is emphasized (as one should have expected): on the contrary, the documentary takes place all between the wolves of the park (so to speak!) deprived of the Gèvaudan and the national one of Mercantour, where, always for chance (!) the first wolves were sighted; the documentary is all a game about the ambiguous, in which the enclosed park of the Gèvaudan is rarely mentioned, as if to create the illusion of wolves in freedom in the Mercantour, where the crew often goes to try to film them, but without ever succeeding or saying when the shooting is in the fenced park (even if you can guess it); the fanaticism (lupofilia!) of the character who created that kind of private wolf farm is evident (in that enclosure there are wolves of various species: European, Canadian, Mongolian and Siberian). If I had been in his place, I would have worked hard to reintroduce the wolf; all the more so having both wolf specimens (with exponential annual growth) and great economic possibilities. I don't know if he did, and I think we'll never know. At the most, you could know of any unexpected escapes from the enclosure (as they say they also occurred in the zoosafari of the Langhe), because these are things that can happen.
Here are the two versions (the Italian one quoted from memory):
Original: “… we are grateful to… (omission for privacy reasons) who devoted his life to the rehabilitation of the wolf”. Thanks to him we were able, little by little, to establish a very strong emotional relationship with the wolves. " Italian version: “… we are grateful to… (omission for privacy reasons) if the wolf has returned to France”. That is, no thanks to Italy for allowing the wolf to grow and spread to the point of allowing it to reach France! No. Indeed, "THANK YOU ... (omission for privacy)" !!!
As if he wanted to send the message: who wants to understand understand!
Today the same anomalous presence of wolves in various parts of Switzerland leads us to think of other liberation operations, imitating what was presumably done in France, (made by whom? A mystery, as a mystery still remains that of the first liberations of Linci in Switzerland): an explosion of wolves which is absolutely illogical and which, even if we wanted to accept the Apennine one towards the north, cannot be explained by the lesser presence towards the south. As I have written for some time, I am sure that one day when DNA becomes a serious and valid thing (and in the hands of super-partes laboratories!), The mystery will be discovered, because there will be work to determine the various populations of this " any wolf as long as there is a wolf ". Forced, the authorities, to have to drastically reduce the number every year as is already done for deer and roe deer and as has been done for years in all countries of the world where there are growing populations of wolves; and precisely and also, not so much to reduce their possible danger to man, as to reduce the damage they cause to the pastoral economy. Honestly, this non-scientifically serious environmentalism-animal activism literally sucks to me! The return operation of the wolf in the Alps had to be done, but with the seriousness of the Americans for their reintroductions in Yellowstone and other places in the States, when a long period of education about the local (human) population was carried out. it would then have had to suffer the negative impact. And with a serious choice of subspecies to be reintroduced. We have probably done something undemocratic, anti-scientific and anti-social: everyone is happy to have "any wolf just to have the wolf". The no! And I hope that one day the "genetic cleansing" operations will begin. But it will be hard, should it ever be discovered that specimens of various genetic-geographical origins have been mixed or, even worse, already hybrids between various subspecies: which is the most probable thing! But on which no one investigates, despite having the millions of Euros of European funding to… study the wolf! The conservation of genetic purity is the real emergency for Italian wildlife biodiversity (and should also be done for many species of animals, polluted by immissions for hunting purposes when not real introductions, always for hunting purposes, and / or liberations of shameless animal rights. ).
The reasonableness of Luigi Boitani: a merit!
The leading wolf expert in Italy is now on the line pursued by the AIW as the only solution to the wolf problem, for a feasible coexistence that avoids the free right of defense of the past by those who have only problems and economic damage from the wolf , and which brought the wolf to the brink of extinction and even extinction in many regions and in many countries. We are grateful to him!
NB: Statements extracted from various interviews, premises in the citations.
October 31, 2014
from the website WWW.PIANO BATTAGLIA.IT
"Prof. Boitani answers our question:" Is it possible to bring the wolf back to Sicily and the Madonie? ""
“The Wolf is an extremely adaptable animal. Regardless of the environment in which it is located, the population would grow rapidly and without a basic project, there would be the risk of finding animals in the countries, with serious social repercussions. In this sense, numerical control should also be provided for the wolf population. This is why serious planning is needed first. " “The technical plan must be firmly agreed by the various interest groups in which everyone must be involved, from the administrator to the farmer. Without a well-founded project, you can't go anywhere; in this sense, an example is Scotland, where the reintroduction of the Wolf has been discussed since 1975, and where it will probably never be reintroduced. " The Professor also replied on the question of suidae: "Certainly the only way to control the number of suidae is selective culling, there is no other choice."
December 13 2014
from the website WWW.VERalmente.ORG
“The long march of the wolf. the professor. Boitani in Lessinia ». “As a hypothesis, Boitani does not exclude that conservation can also include removal if, after trying all the ways, coexistence in a specific region is impossible. This eventuality is connected to the other fundamental point of the question, that of damage prevention. "
March 2015
from the magazine HUNTING A BALL
“Whatever the level of conflict, it is still a burden that falls on the breeders category and every effort must be made to be eliminated or reduced to tolerable levels as it has been for so many centuries of coexistence. There are many reasonable and feasible solutions, but they require the collaboration of farmers, governments and citizens: if the starting point is an unwillingness to collaborate, I fear that conflicts will be insoluble. " Question: "In perspective, wolves represent a manageable species in Italy also through hunting, or not?" Boitani: “Why not? The wolf is a wild species like any other and, if its populations are healthy, it can certainly be a species of hunting interest and sustain a calculated and sustainable harvest. "
March 27 2015
from the website WWW.LA STAMPA.IT
“Europe proves it: humans and carnivores can coexist. Interview with Luigi Boitani, one of the greatest Italian biologists "
“If we look at these carnivore populations, we have to admit that full protection is not admissible. Animals reproduce. "
“Where these 4 species of carnivores are, sometimes all four together, as in some areas of the Scandinavian peninsula, there is greater completeness in ecosystem functions. But it is also true, and it must be said without hesitation, that the very concept of coexistence implies that we must intervene to reduce the natural density of these carnivores in some area. We must be aware that by doing this we are sometimes forced to weaken the food chain. But what alternative is there? At this historic moment, if we look at the last 30 years and the next 30, the large European fauna is doing well. In general, the entire European environment is doing better, which opens up prospects for the connectivity of carnivore populations across the continent. "
“I always finish my lectures in America by saying, stop thinking about Yellowstone and look at Europe because you will soon be like us: on average, 2 wolves per 100 square kilometers. In Italy, forests have increased, ungulates have exploded and today Italy is much wilder than 300 years ago. We need carnivores not only from an ecological point of view, but also from a psychological point of view. A country that no longer has a carnivore, only sheep, but are we crazy? We need to be carnivores even a little bit inside of us. "
Some clarifications and clarifications
When, last month, the Document on the Wolf of the AIW was released (viewable on our website: wilderness.it) someone exploited the reference made in the introduction to the drama of the Germanwings plane that crashed over the French Alps . But the reference was motivated by the observation, and therefore indirect proof, of a high (and anomalous!) Presence of wolves: I don't think the same things would have been written if such a disaster had happened in the Apennines! Someone wrote that it was not credible that wolves threatened the remains of the corpses of the dead, when it is notorious that wolves devour any animal carcass they could find, be it wild animals and / or humans. And the same logic tells us that in the presence of scattered remains of 150 people with a presence in the area of a large population of wolves, to imagine that this does not happen or cannot occur, is not from so-called "experts" of animals, but from absolute incompetent of animals! Unless induced ... by blatant bad faith!
Others have written that no authority has ever thought of eliminating the dogs that in so many cases have attacked the man, saying another falsehood in blatant bad faith. Because these animals have always been either eliminated in the true sense of the word (ie killed with firearms) or relegated to kennels. Therefore, always "eliminated" from the possibility that they can still have direct relations with man or his properties.
Someone almost passed the dissemination of the AIW Document as an exploitation of the aforementioned painful fact, when instead it was a pure coincidence, as that Document had been discussed for about a month in the AIW Board of Directors, and was then was finally approved just the day before the plane crashed. Other than "unworthy exploitation". Here those who exploit are precisely the opponents of the AIW Document who, in order to defend the wolves, deny not only real facts, but also logical and high probabilities. To conclude. It may seem absurd, but today the best way to defend the wolf and guarantee its survival and its presence in the natural balance of our country is to ALLOW THE NUMBER REDUCTION! It is not for nothing that we learn that in Spain the share that hunters paid to kill a wolf has dropped by a quarter from the initial 14.900 euros each: it is logical to think that it is due to the need to reduce the number for the usual and equally logical containment of their damage. And the environmental associations of the Cantabrian region have now accepted the idea that action must be taken to reduce the number of wolves if we want to avoid a reaction that could become dangerous for the wolf itself. If we do not do it too, let's expect a new war against the wolf. Meanwhile, we learn that the authorities in France are taking the same step. It is the wisdom that is making its way, a wisdom that is aimed, also and precisely, at the defense of the wolf, which defends itself by spending less money on useless research and studies and more reimbursement of damages!
And finally one last PS
At the end of this document, we learn that the Abruzzo National Park, in order to satisfy a request from the Regional Park of the Maritime Alps, would have sent or is about to send to the aforementioned Park, a TRUE APPENNINE WOLF (AND ABRUZZESE!) That had been kept in captivity in a village of the Park, recovered by the guards and then treated (he had evidently suffered trauma). Why this request? That, perhaps, as was already understood by anyone who has knowledge of the Wolf, the wolves that for several years have been kept in captivity in the "Wildlife Center" of that Park (and also in those of the next Mercantour) are not Apennine wolves at all? And, if any, is this difference pointed out, at least with signage, to visitors? And why, with the many wolves captured in the Alps, whether for the purpose of taking their DNA and / or because they were found in decay or otherwise, it was never thought of putting one of them (in many years some have been well captured then difficult to re-release, such as the Ormea puppy of a few years ago) in the aforementioned "Center" given that they consider them Apennines? But no, coincidentally they ask Abruzzo for one, with the costs they will have to suffer for the transfer alone! Obviously someone has doubts, and someone is always interested in having the TRUE APPENNIAN WOLF for visitors to see. A need that should not have been felt any need if all those wolves, both inside the "Center" and outside it and free for the Franco-Piedmontese Alps, are, as obstinately has always tried to make us believe, APPENNINE WOLVES . Who knows if a day will ever come when we will clarify this "any Wolf as long as there is a wolf" ?!
Murialdo, 8 May 2015
Frank Zunino
AIW SECRETARY GENERAL