Helping wolves in Bulgaria

Wolf Study and Conservation Program

Balkan Wildlife Society, Bulgaria
Progress report
January - March, 2003

Wolf analysis
Winter is here with plenty of snow and for us, this means intensive tracking activities. We had hoped for a good snowy winter for tracking and we certainly got it. This winter we are concentrating our fieldwork in Kraishte. We have managed to investigate in better detail some areas which we had not properly looked at before and we are now close to defining the home-range of another pack inhabiting the area near the border with Serbia. This winter we were lucky to find and follow these wolves several times.

We have also collected some useful additional information about the wolves in areas which we have been monitoring for a long time. Unfortunately, in these areas, hunters manage to kill wolves quite frequently and that's why long term monitoring of packs is very difficult. One just starts to collect information about a certain pack and then one of the alpha animals is shot and the pack structure and normal life is destroyed.

The good winter conditions gave us the opportunity to implement our planned census of wolves in the working area. The aim was to compare the number of wolves counted in the area by us with the official figures (which in our opinion are grossly overestimated for the whole country). On 15th of January, 14 people covered a territory of about 550 sq. km. We counted 6 individual wolves. Taking into account that there may have been tracks which we did not find,, we are prepared to assume an actual number of about 10 individuals. The official number given by the local forestry authorities is 23 individuals. In common with everywhere else in the country, the official numbers are, once again, overestimated.

At the beginning of March we started to prepare for trapping. One trap line was set and is is still active at the moment. We hope to catch a wolf this time.

We have also activated our "pan" trap - putting a young male goat inside an enclosure to lure a wolf into an escape proof wooden pen (the wolf cannot actually reach the goat). This was supposed to attract and contain a wild wolf but, on the third day (or night) the goat somehow managed to escape from its wolf-proof inner cell inside the trap. This is absolutely unbelievable, but nevertheless, true; so the pan trap is closed for now.

During the time when we are not out in the field, we are gradually analyzing our enormous pile of collected wolf scats.

Education activities
During winter, the education activities of the group are at a minimum mainly because we spend much of our time in the field. The schools program continues to run during the season but under the sole guidance of teachers who work with the pupils using books and other materials.

We prepared a calendar which included pupil paintings from the last session of the schools education program. These calendars were sent to all the schools we have been working with, but we also distributed them among various institutions and the general public. We are actually using it as public awareness tool.

Prepared by: Elena Tsingarska - Sedefcheva
21.03.2003