Especially if we do not live in mountain communities, which for some decades have got used to living with these wonderful animals, we hear about the wolf in Italy in a very discontinuous way.

Maybe when a specimen appears unexpectedly where it is least expected: at the end of April 2019 it happened in the Darsena of Milan , while in April 2021 a small herd was spotted in Calderara , just outside Bologna. Or, when the inevitable controversy over restocking is unleashed . And it is a pity, because discovering something more about the wolf also helps us to understand more closely the delicate balance of our territory .

We talked about it with a professional who has dedicated his studies and career to the wolf: Luigi Molinari , who works at the Wolf Apennine Center in the National Park of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines .

What is your background?

I studied Natural Sciences in Parma and wrote a thesis on wolf monitoring, leaning on a European project in the Parma, Reggio and Modena Apennines, whose scientific director was Paolo Ciucci .

After graduating, I attended a II level Master in Conservation of animal biodiversity at the La Sapienza University of Rome. There they proposed me to work on the Marsican bear and the wolf for the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park , where I stayed for about three years.

Since 2009 I have been here at the National Park of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, where I worked for two Life programs , which are European projects on species of community interest.

In Italy there is a shortage of allocations for fauna and species at risk of extinction, so we must necessarily rely on European funds . In summary, I am a zoologist who specializes in large wild carnivores. 

What are you doing now?

Currently, together with my team, I am a technician of the Life Mirco Lupo project for the Wolf Apennine Center. The Mirco project (acronym that stands for “minimizing the impact of canine strays on wolf conservation”) is specific on the main threat to the wolf in Italy, which is that of hybridization with dogs .

The wolf has recovered very well and is present in almost all of our country, but hybridization with dogs jeopardizes the genetic purity of the species. 

Does hybridization make the species weaker with a view to survival?

The hybridization with the dog causes the wild population to acquire non-adaptive characteristics .

The wolf has a very specific function in the ecosystem, which is that of the predator . Dogs have other characteristics (there are guard dogs, herding dogs …), which have been developed by man and are not useful to an animal that lives in nature.

Hybridization is not a problem only for the wolf, but for all animals that have a domestic counterpart : the wild cat, the jackal, the skunk and so on.

It would be enough to manage the dogs properly, respecting the law , and this problem would not exist. Proof of this is the fact that, in other situations, for historical and cultural reasons, the theme of hybridization is almost absent . 

The Mirco Lupo project runs for five years (2015-2020) and provides for various actions involving both stray dogs (captures, sterilizations, vaccinations) and hybrid individuals in nature, which we capture, sterilize and reintroduce into nature with the radio collar. 

We are one of the Italian structures that have put more satellite radio collars  on wolves, so we have a lot of timely information on individuals and we also implement other broad-spectrum actions, in addition to those of the Life program.

This is why we have created the Wolf Apennine Center , which is simply a center of people who take care of the wolf and they understood that it was necessary to centralize the activities , given that the funds are few and the skills on the wolf are very fragmented between Asl, Regions, Parks etc. “Centralizing” does not mean that we do everything ourselves, but that we put all these actors on the table and act together .

Are there other centers similar to the Wolf Apennine Center in Italy?

Abroad , things work differently. In Saxony , for example, there is a real government Wolf Office, divided into three sections: monitoring, damage prevention, communication.

In Italy there is practically nothing codified on this issue , but these poles of interest have been created. In addition to ours, the Piedmontese Large Carnivore Center is very important and effective . The Majella National Park and the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park also have very valid working groups. 

Is this model working?

I would say yes, in some ways it is very convenient and we are constantly receiving requests for collaboration from entities that are called to work on the wolf but need support. 

I give an example. By law, in Emilia-Romagna the  ASL veterinarians are required to verify whether the pet has been preyed upon by the wolf, in case the breeder requests compensation. Often, however, they have no experience with wildlife. So we accompany them, we share data and our scientific expertise, and they feel much calmer .

Then imagine how many municipalities and how many provinces , with the return of the wolf and the social conflict that emerges, are called to express themselves on the subject, despite not having dedicated people and resources. 

The only real problem is that we are not a legal entity, so there are no funds to fuel this engine. If there were no European projects, finding the resources would be really difficult .

You are taking a census of the Apennine wolf population. How many are there right now?

It is one of the questions we are asked most often by people and institutions, but unfortunately it is also one of the most difficult to answer .

Wolves are very elusive animals, very similar to each other, they move at night and in very large areas. In addition, their numbers are constantly changing , because the population is growing but in the meantime, many of them are also illegally killed .

Therefore, making an accurate count would be an extremely long and above all expensive process . To be honest, it would also be useless to spend a lot of money on this: it is better to spend it on damage prevention, communication and to intervene on social conflict. 

At the Italian level, a population estimate was made two years ago for the Wolf Conservation and Management Plan of the Ministry of the Environment. There is talk of a population of between 1,000 and 2,500 wolves .

Are there more precise estimates in other countries or is this choice common to all?

In the Scandinavian states the estimates are much more accurate, because from the beginning they have allocated a lot of funds to keep the population monitored with radio collars and non-invasive genetics . 

Why are the costs so high?

We have several techniques available to know how many wolves live in a territory. That of non-invasive genetics , for example, involves reading the DNA of individuals from their fresh excrement. But analyzing a single sample costs around 80-90 euros: and before arriving at a reliable estimate, you need to examine a lot of them.

Knowing how many wolves there are in a territory would be a pure research exercise , certainly very interesting, but that we cannot afford. The national data in fact derives substantially from the extrapolations of local densities, it is not precise but at least gives an order of magnitude .

Besides hybridization, what are the threats to the wolf in Italy?

The other big threat is poaching which, just like hybridization, is underhanded because it is difficult to quantify . We know that a lot of individuals disappear, but it would take a lot of radio collars to figure out how many there are.

If we limited ourselves to saying that the hunted wolves are the ones we find , we would underestimate and commit what in statistics is called “sampling vice”. In fact, those who hit a wolf with their car tend to declare it, while those who kill it hide it . 

In short, we do not know how many animals are hunted, but we have indications that there are many . The wolf is a territorial species: if you systematically no longer find the same individuals, it means that something is wrong. 

But is there an economic interest in killing the wolf?

One would expect that the biggest conflict was the one with the world of breeders , but this is not the case  because, in our reality, the few remaining have understood how to manage wolves.

At the local level, the direct confrontation is created with the hunting world , which considers the wolf as a competitor . If the wolf eats three roe deer a year, that’s three less roe the hunter can catch. 

All this is paradoxical, because the ecosystem works like this : the wolf eats roe deer and roe deer eat grass. But some do not know this principle and enter the order of ideas that the wolf ” does damage ” only because it follows its nature. 

It is  difficult to make people accept the presence of the wolf, especially in those areas where the reappearance is very recent . Generally, especially when some problem occurs, the population develops a feeling of anger towards the institutions : “The institution has put the wolf there (which is not true), so the institution has to pay”. This is why our role is also important in terms of communication . 

You are very much involved in training. What are the most common “fake news” on the wolf in Italy?

In addition to the ones I have just mentioned, another misconception is that of the danger of the wolf . People are afraid of it due to a historical and cultural heritage, but the numbers tell us that the wolf hasn’t killed anyone for a century. There are also those who believe that hybrids are more dangerous, but this is a historical and biological falsehood. 

We also hear people say “by now there are so many wolves, sooner or later they will eat all the wild ungulates and end up biting a child”: false. When they find less food they will decrease the density , as it works for all animals.

There is another big problem related to the dynamics of communication , local press and social media . In the headlines of the local newspapers the wolf does not eat, it “tears up”; it does not move, but “goes around driven by the pangs of hunger”. These are things that make us insiders smile, but which in the meantime spread false beliefs.

The newspapers do nothing but talk about the damage, but (at least in Emilia) the wolf is one of the wild animals that cause less economic damage ; or, at least, there are several animals that make a lot more of it. I realize that I may sound like an animal advocate, but I’m just reporting the facts. 

The Ministry of the Environment has developed the new plan for the conservation and management of the wolf in Italy, which does not provide for “controlled slaughter”. How was it received by you insiders?

To be sure, this plan has to be taken with a grain of salt for several reasons. There has been much discussion about the fact that he does not explicitly speak of exceptions to the culling ban , which were instead provided for by the 1992 Habitats Directive, the 2002 plan and the previous version (not approved).

This does not mean , however, that it is not foreseen in absolutely exceptional cases (if absurdly a specimen bites a child, it would also be killed with the new plan). 

Another key point is that this plan is not yet in effect and is not even a binding law .

Basically, the Ministry provides a series of guidelines for wolf conservation, which the State-Regions Conference must unanimously approve ; but reaching consensus will be really difficult, because each Region has a different approach. The Regions will also have the task of allocating the funds , because there is no state expenditure chapter. 

The wolf conquering the anthropized environments

Luigi Molinari was also among the speakers of the workshop ” A question of wolves: the wolf conquering man-made environments ” organized in April 2021 by the Eliante cooperative . 

In fact, the presence of the wolf in Italian urban areas is not new. However, we are witnessing an expansion especially towards river floodplains and agricultural areas, even within the borders of large municipalities such as Rome. We are thus approaching the close coexistence between man and wolf which we are already witnessing in various European countries, such as Slovenia. 

It therefore becomes essential on the one hand to manage this coexistence in a respectful way, on the other hand to communicate it with balance , avoiding fueling alarmism. In fact, as contacts increase, accidents will inevitably also increase; rare events but with a great emotional impact.

Knowing how to frame these episodes in the right context is fundamental. Just as it is essential to educate on wild animals , making it clear how much certain behaviors, even if adopted in good faith, are actually risky and counterproductive. One of all, to feed them .

The mistakes to avoid in living with the wolf

But why do we find wolves in the plains, in urbanized areas that have been greatly transformed by the human presence? Simple, explains Luigi Molinari: the wolf is a very adaptable animal . It can feed on wild ungulates as well as waste, otters as well as poultry or fruit, and also easily gets used to living in flat and densely populated areas.

For example, the Po Valley , where the Wolf Apennine Center has identified several animals that are now settled and a dozen reproductive phenomena. In this context, its main sources of food are the otters and the large stables of cattle reared for the production of Parmigiano Reggiano.

From there they arrive quickly to the inhabited centers, sometimes to look for food, sometimes simply to move, and sometimes to avoid meeting other wolves. Those dangers that the local newspapers evoke with a good dose of alarmism, in reality, are the logical consequence of a wrong approach on the part of man .

“The presence of easy food in anthropogenic contexts is a problem”, underlines Elisabetta Rossi , contact person of the Life Wolfalps Eu project for the Lombardy region. This principle holds true not only for wolves but for wildlife as a whole, including wild boars . 

“In Trento in 2019 a wolf approached a barbecue and people threw him a few slices of meat. This is a very dangerous fact because it favors confident behaviors ”, concludes Rossi. “It must be clear that the wolf is not a companion animal : it is a wild animal and, as such, it must remain shy and fearful of man”.