0
Features
5 May 2024 2.00 h

Ignasi Castellví

Member of THE GRUP LLOP Catalunya PLATFORM

“We can live with them”

IF THE HERD IS ACCOMPANIED BY DOGS AND THE CONDITIONS ARE RIGHT, THERE ARE NO ATTACKS

Ig­nasi Castellví is one of the lead­ing ex­perts on wolves in Cat­alo­nia. He is a mem­ber of Sig­na­tus, an en­tity ded­i­cated to the study, dis­sem­i­na­tion and con­ser­va­tion of this species. To­gether with ten other en­vi­ron­men­tal en­ti­ties, Sig­na­tus forms part of the plat­form Grup Llop Catalunya, which aims to re­cover wolf pop­u­la­tions in our coun­try.

You argue that the wolf does not do harm where it breeds. Is co­ex­is­tence pos­si­ble with­out harm­ful con­se­quences for live­stock farm­ing?
Live­stock farm­ing is al­ready on its last legs - it is only main­tained thanks to aid. Whether there are wolves or not is ir­rel­e­vant, what we have to do is help the sec­tor. Wolves don’t mean its demise. Wan­der­ing wolves will stay here if they find favourable con­di­tions: water, forests, spaces to move, tran­quil­lity and nat­ural prey. If they find flocks, this will be per­fect for them, but it is not strictly nec­es­sary if they find nat­ural prey. Co­ex­is­tence is per­fectly fea­si­ble.
The farm­ers are not so sure...
We know of a shep­herd from Bur­gos who has 1,200 sheep, which is a lot, and hasn’t suf­fered any at­tacks be­cause he’s doing things right. If things aren’t done right, wolves will at­tack. The herd is still an easy prey and if a wolf at­tacks a do­mes­tic an­i­mal, it can cover its needs while using up less en­ergy. There isn’t as much re­sis­tance, there’s not as much dan­ger of get­ting hurt. This means that a wolf with cer­tain char­ac­ter­is­tics – such as being alone, which is hap­pen­ing here now, since we only have soli­tary spec­i­mens – has an eas­ier time hunt­ing do­mes­tic live­stock than wild prey. But if the herd is ac­com­pa­nied by dogs and the con­di­tions are right, there are no at­tacks.
What are these con­di­tions?
Above all, hav­ing dogs that can de­fend the live­stock, and ef­fi­cient fences to be able to leave the an­i­mals at cer­tain times. Al­low­ing them to roam at all hours be­cause there isn’t enough graz­ing and other jobs have to be done has its con­se­quences. That’s why we have to herd the an­i­mals, as our grand­par­ents did. What has hap­pened is that wolves dis­ap­peared, our grand­par­ents’ the way of doing things dis­ap­peared and, now wolves are back, re­turn­ing to that way of work­ing isn’t fea­si­ble, be­cause things have changed, and peo­ple can’t spend all their time herd­ing. Today, most shep­herds, though not all, have other jobs. Farm­ers must also have legal safe­guards. There can’t be a sit­u­a­tion whereby a shep­herd doesn’t want to have dogs for fear that they at­tack a cy­clist or hiker who ap­proaches the flock.
What’s the so­lu­tion?
It’s im­por­tant that the au­thor­i­ties help them and that there are aware­ness cam­paigns so that peo­ple who go to the moun­tains leave the flocks and dogs alone. If we join forces to­gether, co­ex­is­tence with the wolf is vi­able. The thing is, we all have to want to do it. Dogs should be of­fered to farm­ers and they should also be helped to train the an­i­mal to do this work. Not all dogs can do it.
Why are wolves nec­es­sary?
First of all to clean up the forests, be­cause in places where the wolf hunts there is much more de­com­po­si­tion. And this de­com­po­si­tion will even­tu­ally make the earth more fer­tile. They also pre­vent the ex­cess con­sump­tion of plants and trees. It’s the ecol­ogy of fear. That is, when a her­biv­o­rous an­i­mal lives in a place that knows there is a preda­tor, it’s more alert.
Sign in. Sign in if you are already a verified reader. I want to become verified reader. To leave comments on the website you must be a verified reader.
Note: To leave comments on the website you must be a verified reader and accept the conditions of use.

Published on

Most Viewed