A wolf hangs under the road sign, and the townspeople hunt the wolf who sneaked into the ranch to steal sheep and hang it at the intersection for public display.
Small-town Croatian residents have been plagued by wolf infestations, surrounded by an increasing number of wolves, and wolves continue to steal livestock from pastures. In April 2021, a rancher witnessed a pack of wolves attacking 90 of his sheep. After a few days, the townspeople, unable to resist the long-suppressed anger, directly killed a wolf and hung it on the street sign, and the wolf is a protected animal in Croatia that is forbidden to be killed.
Since wolves were listed as protected animals in Croatia in 1995, their numbers have gradually increased, and conflicts with the population have also increased. In 2005, the government eased the ban and allocated a quota of annual wolf hunting, but in 2013, the ban on hunting began to be fully enforced.
In 2020, 3,000 domestic animals were killed by wolves in Croatia, most of them sheep.
Ivan, a resident of the town, told AFP that in the past 12 years, 100 cows, large and small, have been attacked by wild wolves. In May 2021, 6 wolves killed 3 adult sheep and 5 lamblets from Xhosa. Pictured is a picture of a lamb mutilated by a wolf pack taken on Xhosa's phone.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="30" > wild wolves are not endangered, but wolves that previously spread across Eurasia have now disappeared in many places and are listed as local protected animals. </h1>
The wolf, or Eurasian wolf, is what we usually call the big gray wolf. Wolves are the largest animal in the family of canines in existence, and adult male wolves weigh 40 kilograms. It is very adaptable, with forests, wetlands, grasslands, deserts all having their traces, and the living field extends from the plain to the highlands at an altitude of 3,000 meters. And wolves are not afraid of cold, and in the winter, they will change a thick coat to fight the cold of minus 40 degrees, in contrast, wolf hair is more insulated than dog hair.
Wolves are social animals, and the average Eurasian wolf pack consists of 8 wolves, usually a family, a pair of parents and their offspring. Sometimes 2 or 3 nuclear families form a large wolf pack. A pack of wolves will occupy a large area of territory to ensure a stable supply of prey. On record, the smallest wolf pack territory is 6 wolves occupying 33 square kilometers, and the largest wolf pack territory is Alaska's 10 wolves occupying 6200 square kilometers.
The gray wolf's main diet is medium-sized herbivores such as moose, red deer, various sheep, and roe deer and wild boar are also its prey. Wolves are not picky eaters, and their diet is extensive, and small animals such as rabbits, birds, lizards, and snakes are also eaten. During the harsh winter when there is a lack of food, wolves will also attack weakened or injured wolves and eat the corpses of their companions.
Wolves have a long history of conflict with humans, and the number of wolves has been decreasing for hundreds of years. After the introduction of the Berne Convention for the Protection of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats in 1979, the number of wolves in Europe began to rebound, and the area of life of wolves expanded. Wolves became extinct in France in the 1930s, and by the 1990s, wolves had entered France from Italy and now number 360. Wolves became extinct in Germany in the 19th century, and by the early 21st century, wolves had entered Germany from Poland and now numbered more than 1,000.
After the wolf disappeared, it returned to the territory and began to multiply. This phenomenon proves the achievements of wildlife conservation measures, but it also brings about an increasingly fierce conflict between wildlife and humans. In 2016, more than 8,000 livestock were killed by wolves in France, and France increased the quota for residents to kill wolves every year, allowing 10% of the total number of wolves to be killed every year, but the lifting of the ban was strongly opposed by animal protection groups.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="18" > now croatia is facing the same dilemma as France, should we loosen the ban on hunting wolves? </h1>
According to the Department of Ecology and Environment, there are 160 wild wolves in 25,000 square kilometers, from the Adriatic coast to the mountainous areas bordering Slovenia and Bosnia. But nearby residents say there are actually more than that, with at least 300 wolves here.
The density of wolves in this area is much higher than that in other areas. And the worst part is that among these wolves, hybrid wolves are mixed with wolf-dog hybrids. The number of hybrid wolves is staggering, accounting for 10% to 25% of the total number of wolves.
Biologists at the University of Zagreb point out that when male wolves in a wolf pack are hunted, the female wolf will mate with stray dogs, causing the number of hybrid wolves in the wolf pack to rise sharply.
These hybrid wolves are the biggest problem among the Croatian wolves. For wild animals, the inclusion of hybrid genes that cross with domesticated animals within the race is not a good thing. Hybrids lack the instinct to hunt in the wild and are not afraid of humans at all. In search of food, instead of chasing rabbits, deer and wild boar in the woods, the hybrids circle the pastures, specifically hunting human-raised cattle and sheep. An attack by a pack of wolves can sometimes kill all the livestock in an entire corral. The electric fence outside the ranch was not effective in stopping the wolves from attacking.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="32" > Protect wolves or protect sheep when wolves frequently kill domestic cattle and sheep? </h1>
If the wolf is protected, the wolf will grow bolder and bolder until he is no longer afraid of humans and uses domestic cattle as his granary. Finally, the sheep raised by the farmers are fed to the wolves. In addition, ranchers who are often attacked by wild wolves have another concern, although there are no cases of wild wolves hurting people, but unscrupulous wild wolves may harm the elderly and children.
If the sheep are protected, the wolves that have been extinct for 100 years before returning to the territory may soon disappear again. Previous efforts to protect wildlife have come to naught.
The contradiction between wolves and sheep is also a contradiction often encountered in the protection of wild animals. In Croatia, the government compensates 80 euros for every sheep killed by a wild wolf, but this amount is not enough to compensate for the loss of farmers.
If the wolf and the human life are not completely separated, the contradiction between the wolf and the sheep will continue.