Wolves, for and against
While conservationists fear for their protection, farmers warn that the return of wolves could spell the end for their industry
Over the past three decades, although wolves from Italy, France and Germany have been detected in Catalonia, they have always been solitary, wandering animals that have not established a group. For some environmental groups, the fact that no wolf pack has been discovered in over 20 years justifies a debate on reintroducing the species, which they consider key to biodiversity. However, farmers are completely against the measure, convinced that the wolf would represent the death knell for their industry. And in the midst of these two very different positions, the Catalan government has chosen to neither favour any kind of reintroduction, nor impede the wheels of biology, in the knowledge that this species capable of travelling great distances will ultimately do whatever it wants.
“We have to get away from polarised views that tell us wolves either have to be reintroduced or are the devil. We must focus on managing their presence and adapting to an uncertain future, because we don’t know what will happen,” says the Catalan government’s General Director of Environmental Policies and Natural Environment, Marc Vilahur.
Passing through
Whether we will have wolves in Catalonia in the future remains unknown. “We can’t know for sure, nor can we know how they would behave within the territory. Wolves have arrived and passed through Catalonia and left for Aragon,” explains Ignasi Castellví, naturalist and member of the entity Signatus. This means that here they have not found the basic necessary conditions: other wolves, water, forests, space to move, natural prey and tranquillity. “A sexually mature young two-year-old male who has abandoned the wolfpack may arrive in a territory like Catalonia, but since there is no significant density of wolves it probably doesn’t end up staying here,” observes Castellví, who is personally in favour of reintroducing the species. Wolves are considered extinct in Catalonia because they do not reproduce, although as a species they are included in the catalogue of endangered native wildlife. Due to this cataloguing, if wolves were to arrive, then protection and conservation measures would have to be taken.
Although the possibility of reproduction is uncertain, environmentalists have not lost hope. The most encouraging fact is that a pair of wolves, male and female, has been detected in the town of Alcañiz, in Lower Aragón, a short distance (about 80 kilometres) from the Els Ports massif. It is therefore possible to imagine wolves spreading from the west and not from the Pyrenees, as everyone expected to happen when their presence became official in 2004.
The female from Alcañiz was first identified in 2020, when the conditions of the Covid pandemic favoured the dispersal of these animals. Since then, she has had the company of two males: one was run over and killed, and the other, of Italian lineage, she is expected to be able to breed with “because that is what his biology tells us,” says Castellví. If the pair do end up breeding, that would be important for genetic variability, given that they are an Iberian wolf and an Italian wolf. In Europe, the populations of Iberian, Italian and central European wolves remain quite isolated from each other and the fact that they end up connecting helps to avoid inbreeding.
European regulation
At the European level, wolves are protected by a 1992 directive. But since the end of last year, following pressure from farmers, the possibility of reducing this protection has been considered. “We’re afraid that the wolf will lose its status due to the political interest of the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who, because there are elections, is looking to prevent the far right from rising,” says Castellví. “The PSOE government seems to be in favour of maintaining protection, but if a right-wing party comes to govern in Spain, and if European laws favour persecution, we will again have a scenario in which the wolf can be hunted,” he warns.
Farmers against reintroduction
“Wolves are a problem for farmers. All those who comment about wolves who live in cities should come and see the damage they’re doing in other parts of the Peninsula, where some farmers have even had to quit because of them,” claims Joan Guitart, territorial coordinator of the Farmers’ Union in the Upper Pyrenees.
In the past, he recalls, shepherds accompanied their flocks with a shotgun. They lived and even slept with them. “Farmers can still do this, of course, but at the price of that being your life. You can save the herd, but you won’t have a family life. I challenge wolf advocates to buy a flock of sheep and put themselves in an area with wolves, see how long they last,” Guitart says. The most effective systems to make the presence of wolves compatible with livestock farming are fences and electric meshes, as well as guard dogs.
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