Helping wolves in Bulgaria

Wolf Study and Conservation Program

Balkan Wildlife Society, Bulgaria
Progress report
January - March 2007

2007 started with a very soft winter. There was almost no snow, so we almost did not do any snow-tracking. The snow was only in the high mountain parts, where wolves do not go in winter. The only 4 – 5 days when we could do any tracking, we did not find any tracks so we could not find out how many members are left in the pack as we usually do every winter. Over winter, in fact, we got almost no data about this pack and this was also partly due to the fact that the radio-collared female left it.

In mid November we lost her signal in the area of their home range. We started searching around, but could not find her until mid December when we finally heard the signal further south in Pirin. By radio-tracking we followed her migration as she moved from the West Pirin Mts. to the South Pirin Mts., travelling over 45 km. Eventually, she settled in an area, in south Pirin, where we located her several times in January.

Unfortunately, on 25^th of January we heard the mortality signal. From 28’th January we have been searching regularly in the area to find her but we have had no success. The terrain in this area is very rough and very forested and the slopes where we have to search are extremely steep. Because of the steep and rocky terrain there are a lot of reflections of the radio signal and this makes it almost impossible to pin down her position exactly. We do intend to go and search again at least to get the collar back but because her body will be decomposed by now we will not get much of an idea of her cause of death.

As written above, we couldn’t ascertain the number of wolves in Siva’s native pack. However, we did get information how many wolves there are in another way. In March, the flock of Karakachan sheep of our partner organization SEMPERVIVA was attacked by wolves, while grazing. The shepherd could see and count five wolves. So although we did not do snow tracking, we finally had some information about the pack size for this year too.

We did our regular inquiries with local people in the two model areas, about wolf activity to livestock. We do this every year to follow the dynamics of predatory activity but our data has still not been analysed to obtain the results.  

We have started analyzing the big number of wolf scats we have collected. At the moment we have results only concerning the wild boar component in the wolves’ diet. It turns to be about 10-12 percent, but we will have to analyze all the scats to tell for sure.

Since February, the LC centre has been taking up most of our time. We intend to make a “small” opening on 3^rd of May. We call it “small”, because the centre is not ready for the official opening. The building company which makes the rough building was late with some of the jobs, but also we were late with some of the payments so we could not really complain.

At the moment we can prepare only the first floor of the centre, and set the exhibition there because there is still no roof over the second floor. The “small” opening will mean that the centre (first floor) will be open for visitors and in the mean time we will be finishing the reast of the building and the exhibition. For this opening we will invite only some pupil groups and one local newspaper. For the big opening which we intend to make in autumn, a lot of media and official guests are going to be invited.

Prepared by:

Elena Tsingarska - Sedefcheva