Helping wolves in Bulgaria

Wolf Study and Conservation Program

Balkan Wildlife Society, Bulgaria
Progress report
April - June 2004


The spring time was very, very rainy this year in Bulgaria and particularly in Pirin. This gave us possibility to do some more wolf tracking. We followed trails on muddy roads and collected more wolf scats. We managed to fill some of the gaps we have in the home - ranges determination.

In May we also made series of roe deer road counting, trying to define the density of this main natural wolf prey in a certain area.
Some of our time in May and most of it in June was occupied with ordering and analyzing the data collected in Kraishte. All the results are going to be put in a booklet, published and spread among all the interested institutions (forestry units, regional authorities of Ministry of Environment, universities, etc.). This is one of the very important steps of presenting our arguments for wolf conservation in this country.

On 22nd of April (the Earth day) two groups of pupils (20 pupils each) from two different schools came to visit our wolf Vucho. The pupils were from Kresna town, which is just below Vlahi and from Sandanski town, which is in South Pirin Mts.

Each of the groups visited Vucho, heard about wolves, about our work and why we need to conserve them. Everyone had the possibility to pet Vucho. We asked them to stay in queue and come to Vucho one by one. However the queue was never ending, because those who touched him went at the back of the queue to wait again and again. It was very cute situation. The children were happy and Vucho was happy to greet them all. At the end there was a quiz for the pupils and those who answered correctly received presents. Each pupil without exception received a study booklet from the ones we use in the education program. Their teachers were glad that they can work together on this nice additional education material.

We also started the information collection about wolf activity towards livestock in Pirin Mts. It is obvious that this spring wolves "preferred" sheep and goats menu, in stead of hunting in the forest. The reason is still not known to us, but for sure one of it is the inefficient protection of the attacked flocks. We have as an example the flocks where Karakachan dogs have been given to herdsmen. In those flocks there are almost no successful attacks on livestock.

We started arranging all the needed documentation for the building of the future Large Carnivore Center.

Prepared by:
Elena Tsingarska - Sedefcheva
03. 08. 2004