European Wolves

[Ngala]

5 - ITALIAN PENINSULAR POPULATION 

"This population is situated along the Apennine Mountains and consists of approximately 321 wolf packs, corresponding to 1212–1711 wolves (Galaverni et al., 2016). Wolves were extirpated from the Alps in the 1920s, and thereafter continued to decline in peninsular Italy until the 1970s, where approximately 100 individuals survived, isolated in two fragmented subpopulations in the central Apennines (Lucchini et al., 2004; Fabbri et al., 2007). Nowadays, the Italian wolf population has a nearly continuous distribution along the Apennines, although three genetic subpopulations (northern Apennines, Central Apennines and Southern Apennines; Fabbri et al., 2007) persist with limited gene flow (Scandura et al., 2011). The Italian wolf population (together with the Scandinavian population) is probably one of the most extensively microsatellite-genotyped wolf populations in Europe (Dolf et al., 2000; Lucchini et al., 2004; Fabbri et al., 2007, 2014; Scandura et al., 2011; Caniglia et al., 2014; Randi et al., 2014). It has been shown that wolves from peninsular Italy have distinct microsatellite allele frequencies that are highly differentiated from other wolf populations typed so far in Europe (Randi et al., 2000; Randi & Lucchini, 2002), except for the Alpine population (Fabbri et al., 2014) and wolves in the Pyrenees in France and Catalonia in Spain (Lampreave et al., 2011; Sastre, 2011), which was established with wolves from Italian origin."

Wolf from Abruzzo, Italy. From Nature Photo Blog, credits to Bruno D'Amicis Wildlife Photography.

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6 - ALPINE POPULATION

"The Alpine wolf population comprises approximately 160 animals and is distributed in the Austrian, French, Italian and Swiss Alps. There are at least 116 animals in France, present in a minimum of 36 wolf permanent presence areas (ONCFS wolf winter survey 2014–2015), 57–89 animals in Italy (Galaverni et al., 2016), eight animals in Switzerland and 2–8 animals in Austria. The Western Alps in Italy, Switzerland and France (Lucchini et al., 2002; Valière et al., 2003; Fabbri et al., 2007, 2014) have been recolonized by Italian wolves, while the eastern and the central Alps are being colonized by wolves from both the Italian and Dinaric-Balkan populations (Fabbri et al., 2014; Razen et al., 2016). On the other hand, wolves from this population have expanded south-west, recently reaching the French Massif Central and the Pyrenees in 1999 and Catalonia in Spain in 2000, carrying a mtDNA haplotype unique to Italian wolves (W4 in Vil`a et al., 1997) (Valière et al., 2003; Lampreave et al., 2011; Sastre, 2011), although without evidence of reproductive success until now, as deduced from the continuous monitoring by the Catalan government."

Wolf from Maritime Alps Natural Park, Western Alps, Italy. From Life WolfAlps, credits to Michelangelo Giordano.

*This image is copyright of its original author

The main threats (including both Italian peninsular and Alpine population)
"The current wolf population expansion on the Italian peninsula is increasing the frequency of conflicts with humans, especially in areas where free-grazing on open pastures is widespread (Meriggi et al., 2011; Milanesi, Meriggi & Merli, 2012). Both Italian peninsular and Alpine populations face threats that are mainly related to low public acceptance, poor management structure, lack of knowledge, persecution and accidental mortality, among others (Table 4; Fig. 8). Of these, illegal killing through poisoning remains the most important cause of mortality (Marucco et al., 2009; Marucco & McIntire, 2010).Hybridization with dogs in areas of the central Apennines has also become a serious concern (Randi, 2008). The genetic diversity of these populations is one of the lowest in Europe (see Table 1) but there are signs of improved connectivity with other European populations: on one hand the Alpine population is incorporating animals from the Dinaric-Balkan population (Fabbri et al., 2014; Razen et al., 2016); on the other hand, wolves from the Alpine population have expanded south-west, recently reaching the French Massif Central, the Pyrenees and Catalonia in Spain (Valière et al., 2003; Lampreave et al., 2011; Sastre, 2011); however, since there were no wolves in this area, this expansion will not  contribute any genetic diversity to the Italian wolf population (see also Fig. 1). In general, administrative fragmentation and the obvious absence of any national authority responsible for wolf management can be considered as important threats that need to be urgently addressed through a renewed effort by the Ministry of Environment, the key agency coordinating the regional governments in implementing national and EU laws."

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 Reply