Wolves, Wild Dogs and Foxes: Page 8 Endangered Species Handbook

Persecution and Hunting

Wolves, Wild Dogs and Foxes: Page 8

Elsewhere, the history of the Gray Wolf is similar. As early as 300 B.C., Celtic people in the British Isles began breeding wolfhounds for chasing and killing wolves (McIntyre 1995). The King of Scots decreed in the second century B.C. that anyone killing a wolf would be rewarded with an ox (McIntyre 1995). In Anglo-Saxon England, January was designated Wolf Month, to be devoted to the slaughter of wolves; during the reign of King Edgar of England, beginning in 953, a tribute of 300 wolf skins per year was demanded. In 1281, King Edward I hired a man to devote himself entirely to killing wolves (McIntyre 1995). Over the next centuries, wolf extermination campaigns continued in the British Isles, and forests were leveled for livestock grazing and agriculture. The last wolf in Ireland was killed in 1821, and a wolf killed in Scotland in 1848 resulted in the extinction of the species throughout the British Isles (McIntyre 1995).

In France, Emperor Charlemagne founded an order of knights for killing wolves, called the Louveterie, about A.D. 800 (McIntyre 1995). Wolves were exterminated 1,000 years ago in all but remote forests of the French Pyrenees on the border with Spain. By the 20th century, only a handful of Gray Wolves survived in these forests, and apparently they were killed off in the 1950s. In the early 1990s, small numbers of Gray Wolves crossed over the Alps from Italy into southeastern France. In 1999, the French government decided to remove these 40 wolves, killing or caging them, after complaints by herdsmen that the wolves were killing sheep (Newman 1999). Environmentalists claimed the sheep were being killed by feral dogs (Newman 1999).

The last wolf in what is now Germany was killed in 1847 (McIntyre 1995). Within the past decade, a few wolves have entered eastern Germany from Poland, which has a population of about 1,000 wolves (McNamee 1997). Polish wolves have been heavily persecuted for centuries, and only in 1998 did the species receive official protection (Nowak and Myslajek 1999). They occur mainly in eastern mountains where they have come into conflict with livestock owners. An organization, Wolfnet, has been working with livestock owners to compensate them for losses and protect them against predation by wolves (Nowak and Myslajek 1999). Wolfnet travels around the country educating the public, government officials and students about the behavior, biology and intelligence of wolves, attempting to undo the mistaken beliefs that result in many killings of wolves (Nowak and Myslajek 1999).

Scandinavia has nearly wiped out its wolves, with only about 25 in Norway and Sweden and fewer than 100 in Finland (McNamee 1997). In 2001, the Norwegian government allowed the killing of some of the few remaining wolves because of complaints by livestock owners, despite protests from wildlife organizations in the country. An unknown--but small--number also survive in Greenland (McNamee 1997).

In Spain, wolves may total from 1,500 to 2,000, the largest population in Western Europe (McNamee 1997, Binder 2000). They are heavily persecuted there, however. At one time wolves were found throughout the Iberian peninsula, but they are now confined to the northern portions of Spain and Portugal (Bergman 1997). In Portugal, only about 150 survive. The wolves of Spain and Portugal are listed by the 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as Conservation Dependent. At least half of rural people in areas where wolves remain in Iberia believe the animals should be exterminated altogether, while another 35 percent want them "controlled," allowing only a few to survive (Bergman 1997). Wolves may be sport hunted in Spain, resulting in the deaths of at least 300 animals a year; added to this mortality, the practice of denning, or killing pups in a den, is legal, and 25 percent of wolves are killed in this manner (Bergman 1997). Luis Mariano Barrientos, a biologist studying Spain's wolves, has documented that they kill relatively few sheep, which are usually protected by mastiff dogs and shepherds. He says that the wolves are killed because of prejudice and persecution, and laments, "It's a national disgrace. A barbarity" (Bergman 1997). A recent study recommended that a strict compensation program be set up. At present, indemnities are paid only if local administrations choose to do so, and many do not (Bergman 1997). This results in great resentment toward wolves. The wolves of Spain survive by stealth, hiding in fallow fields and moving about at night, and when they howl, they risk their lives (Bergman 1997). For long-term survival in Spain, they need a large sanctuary with natural prey species.

Small populations of Gray Wolves still remain in pockets of the Mediterranean region. About 500 wolves survive in Italy, listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Very little wilderness remains in the country, and wolves have been squeezed into agricultural and livestock grazing areas (McNamee 1997). Their survival until the 20th century is due to an attitude of tolerance, unlike the prejudice and hatred toward wolves so common in Europe. No national extermination campaign was ever launched, and herders corral their sheep at night and protect their flocks with guard dogs (McNamee 1997). Because of a lack of natural prey, such as deer, in the region, these wolves occasionally kill livestock. When this happens, herders put out poison or shoot the wolves. Italian wolves live in pairs or groups of three in most areas because there are no large ungulates to hunt in packs. This has made them quiet, nocturnal and shy. These wolves also prey on small mammals, such as rabbits and marmots (McNamee 1997). Only in a few national parks, such as the Abruzzi east of Rome where about 20 to 30 wolves hunt deer, do they exhibit natural behavior, forming packs and howling (McNamee 1997). Even there, however, sheep are allowed to graze within park boundaries, and sheep owners have been soliciting members of the public to "adopt" a sheep to contribute to the cooperative farm (Stanley 2000). By the 1970s, wolves numbered only a few hundred, but after the government accorded the species full protection in 1976, they began to increase in numbers and range (McNamee 1997). They now occupy the entire country, and if there are livestock losses, owners are compensated and are not allowed to kill the wolves (McNamee 1997). Professor Luigi Boitani, a wolf biologist at the University of Rome, commented at a wolf conference that most of the Italian public is in favor of wolves and more opposed to control programs than some wildlife managers, like himself (Binder 2000). The official protection given to these wolves is far stronger than that given to either the Gray or Red Wolf in the United States.

Southeastern Europe's wolf populations are fragmented, but increasing in some countries. The former Yugoslavia has about 930; Hungary, 50; Romania, which protects the species, 2,500; Bulgaria, fewer than 100; Slovakia, 350; and Greece, 300 to 500 (McNamee 1997). Romania is the only one of these countries where people have a tradition of honoring wolves; sheep in the country are protected by guard dogs, and wolves prey mainly on native ungulates. In some areas the wolves have taken to ranging through city trash piles for food (Binder 2000). Croatia allowed unlimited killing of wolves until 1995 when fines of up to $6,000 were imposed for killing wolves (Binder 2000). This had the counter-effect of encouraging wolf killing, resulting in the deaths of more than 40 wolves, and no one has paid a fine; about 100 wolves remain in the country (Binder 2000).

In the eastern Mediterranean, there are estimates of a few wolves remaining in Lebanon; about 30 in Egypt; 200 in Jordan; 150 to 300 in Israel; several thousand in Turkey; and about 1,000 in Iran (McNamee 1997). In Saudi Arabia, where wolves are killed to protect livestock, hunters often string up a wolf carcass on a pole for all to see (Binder 2000). Dr. Iyad A. Nader of the King Khalid Wildfire Research Center in Riyadh, estimated that up to 700 wolves remain in three protected areas of Saudi Arabia, but elsewhere in the country they have no legal protection (Binder 2000). Wolves are persecuted by livestock herders in all the latter countries.

Just after World War II, there were between 150,000 and 200,000 wolves in the Soviet Union, but beginning in 1947, an intensive government control program drastically reduced their numbers (Nowak 1999). The annual kill was 40,000 to 50,000 until 1962, when it dropped to 15,000; in the 1970s, some 50,000 wolves were estimated to survive in the entire country, including the Central Asian Republics (Nowak 1999). After an increase in wolf populations, a sizeable bounty was paid for killing them; and in 1980, 35,573 pelts were taken through aerial hunting, poisoning and other means (Nowak 1999). �The Russian Grey Wolf� (1993, Anderson Video, California) chronicled this bounty hunting and other persecution. In the past 70 years, more than 1.5 million animals have been killed; about 20,000 wolf pelts are marketed in Russia every year (Busch 1995). In the early 1990s, 17,000 men were employed by the Russian government to kill wolves. Since then, the national bounty has been rescinded, and only some state governments pay the equivalent of $25 for a female; the central government no longer encourages poisoning wolves (Binder 2000). In the Russian Far East, a bounty program to kill wolves has been in place for decades, but with the economic chaos following the fall of the Soviet Union, funds to pay the bounties dried up (Specter 1997). A 2001 Cable News Network (CNN) report profiled a government trapper who killed female wolves for the bounty, then raised the orphan cubs for release. The report suggested that persecution continued at high levels and that most Russians wanted the species exterminated.

The Wolf Almanac (Busch 1995) states that some 96 Russian wildlife reserves harbor wolves, and they are hunted actively in 41 of these. They are reported to be safest in certain large reserves, such as the Caucasian, Altai and Pechyora-Ilych reserves, unless they stray outside to prey on livestock (Busch 1995). Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean is to be made into a nature preserve with a wolf colony to cull the large herds of Musk Oxen and Caribou (Binder 2000).

Japan's wolves were killed off 100 years ago, and public opinion is negative about their reintroduction. Biologists want them reintroduced to control Japan's overpopulated Sika Deer, which are damaging forests (Binder 2000).

In Kazakhstan and Central Asia, wolves and Saiga antelope have coexisted for eons, but during this century, both have come under heavy hunting. A film, �The Saiga of Kazakhstan� (see Video Section), describes the detrimental effect that wolf control programs have had on Saiga. Wolves are estimated to number between 90,000 and 100,000 in the country, but biologists claim that they kill large numbers of domestic camels, cows and sheep (Binder 2000). Killing wolves is considered a sport in Kyrgyzstan, south of Kazakhstan, where Golden Eagles are used as falconry birds to hunt foxes, badgers, Lynx and wolves (Kinzer 1999).

Mongolia has an estimated 10,000 wolves; China only about 400; and Afghanistan, 1,000 (McNamee 1997). In Tibet, wolves are heavily persecuted by livestock owners, and in the vast Chang Tang Reserve, it is the only species without legal protection. Wolf carcasses can be seen lying next to roads, the animals having been shot by hunters in vehicles, and biologist George Schaller (1998) saw three wolf bodies in a village dump with their jaws wired shut.

India has fewer than 1,000 wolves by some estimates (McNamee 1997), and between 800 and 2,000 in the opinion of Dr. Yadvendradev Jhala of the Wildlife Institute of India. The species is held in great fear by many Indian people, who regard wolves as man-eaters. A century ago, a bounty program resulted in the slaying of 2,600 wolves (Burns 1996). Indian Gray Wolves (Canis lupus pallipes) were finally accorded official protection in India in 1992. Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book tells the story of Mowgli, an Indian orphan raised by wolves. This story may have a basis in fact because many unwanted children are abandoned and placed in the woods, according to The Wolf Almanac, and Indian folklore recounts many cases of small children raised by wild wolves (Busch 1995). Such a child was discovered in 1972 at the age of four, apparently having been adopted by a pack of wolves. He was placed in Mother Theresa's refuge for orphans in Lucknow, where he died after seven years (Busch 1995). In spite of such true stories, the average Indian has little but fear and loathing for wolves.

Working to help India's wolves, Dr. Jhala and the Wildlife Institute of India are conducting surveys and appraising their status. For centuries, these wolves have lost habitat and prey species to the country's growing human population. When wolves turned to livestock, persecution followed. Dr. Jhala admits, "It is extremely difficult to conserve a species when the majority of the human population is opposed to its survival" (Earthwatch 1996). Beginning in 1988, Dr. Jhala conducted the first-ever ecological study of Indian wolves for his doctorate at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, with funding from the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Institution (Earthwatch, 1996). Earthwatch contributed to this research in 1996 with its volunteer program of paying participants in Dr. Jhala's studies. These volunteers followed radio-tracked wolves in the 3,400-hectare (8,401-acre) Velavadar National Park of western India, one of the wolf's last strongholds, observed Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra), Nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus) and other rare wildlife, and interviewed local farmers through interpreters about their opinions of this species.