European Wolves

[Ngala]

7 - CARPATHIAN POPULATION

"The Carpathian population inhabits a large area, including five countries, and consists of ∼3000 wolves (2300–2700 in Romania, 340–450 in Slovakia, 250–300 in Poland and a small number of individuals in the Czech Republic and Hungary). The population is largely continuous, although with smaller population fragments (for example in the eastern Czech Republic and Hungary) scattered in the border areas of the Carpathian population, representing remnants of a previously wider distribution (Boitani, 2000). The Carpathian Mountains represent one of the largest wolf refuge areas in Europe and are regarded as being of particolar importance for the long-term survival of the species in Europe because of their size and potential to serve as a link between northern and southern populations (Gula, Hausknecht & Kuehn, 2009). Genetic studies covering the Carpathian wolf population have largely focused on the northern part of the Carpathians in Poland, Slovakia and west Ukraine (Pilot et al., 2006, 2010; Czarnomska et al., 2013; Bakan et al., 2014). Both microsatellite and mtDNA data suggest that the Carpathian wolves are genetically distinct from the neighbouring lowland population (Pilot et al., 2006; Czarnomska et al., 2013) and also from the Dinaric-Balkan population (Bakan et al., 2014)."

The main threats
"In Poland, Slovakia and Romania the main problems are connected to livestock depredation (Kaczensky et al., 2013) (Table 4; Fig. 8). For example in Slovakia where depredation on livestock is commonplace, the current overlap of the wolf distribution range with areas devoted to sheep farming is ∼90% (Rigg, 2004). In some areas of the Carpathian population range, overhunting and poaching are the main threats (Kaczensky et al., 2013) (Figs 7 and 8). Nevertheless, the population range and wolf numbers have increate in Slovakia despite hunting during the last 70 years: for example, during the last 20 years the population range has increased by 10% (=1264 km2) (L. Paule, personal communication). There is a general lack of data on gene flow, impact of wolf hunting and hybridization in Ukraine on the number of wolves in neighbouring Poland, Slovakia and Romania."

Source: 
Hindrikson, M., Remm, J., Pilot, M., Godinho, R., Stronen, A. V., Baltrūnaité, L., Czarnomska, S. D., Leonard, J. A., Randi, E., Nowak, C., Åkesson, M., López-Bao, J. V., Álvares, F., Llaneza, L., Echegaray, J., Vilà, C., Ozolins, J., Rungis, D., Aspi, J., Paule, L., Skrbinšek, T. and Saarma, U. (2016), Wolf population genetics in Europe: a systematic review, meta-analysis and suggestions for conservation and management. Biol Rev. doi:10.1111/brv.12298

Wolf from Bieszczady National Park, Bieszczady Mountains, North Eastern Carpathians Mountains, Poland. From Canis lupus 101, credits to Grzegorz Leśniewski.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Reply