wolf-seen-in-brittany-for-first-time-in-a-century/
-jackals-seen-stealing-kills-from-lynx-as-they-expand-range-in-europe/
Rather surprising. Remarkable that wolves could survive in such densely populated areas. They may not be like the wolves in western Canada.
Luigi Boitani, one of the foremost worldwide experts in wolves pointed out that there is one, and one thing only wolves need to survive: that people stop killing them. They can otherwise adapt to basically all other possible conditions (just like stray dogs can).
When I was a kid there were about 100 wolves in Italy, living off some wild game, but with a very (very!) generous helping of food waste. Then the general movement of people into cities really hit the peak, countryside emptied, wild game increased, people stopped hitting wolves with cars by accident (a much more likely source of death than direct poaching), people stopped dropping poison to kill off foxes and stray dogs (and wolves, by accident), and wolves expanded. Central Italian shepherds always had wolves to deal with so they always had effective methods of predation prevention, and in general there was very little concern about wolves.
In general Italy always had so many stray dogs that people had to develop quite a high tolerance for ‘feral’ or ‘wild’ canids. Cannot say what the stray situation is now (not lived in the country for 22 years), but it is hopefully better.
Thanks for the feedback. It is good to get on the ground info.
The golden jackal, detected for the first time in the Iberian Peninsula