They prefer wild wounds from cattle and horses

The most emphasized problem of coexistence of large predatory mammals and people are damage caused among breeding animals. This applies mainly to wolves, whose populations rebuild in Europe thanks to the protective activities introduced at the end of the 20th century. The level of damage in the inventory may affect, among others a way of grazing. That is why scientists from the Faculty of Biology of the University of Warsaw wanted to check what the wolf food composition looks like in a place where numerous herds of slowly grazed and unguarded breeding animals are present. At the research site, they chose a fragment of western Poland covering half a thousand square kilometers, including the Ujście Warta National Park and its neighborhood, where every year it is maintained in the so -called free grazing of about four thousand cows and several hundred horses.

Using molecular methods, based on identification of individuals using a set of nuclear DNA microsatellite sequences, as well as tracking and recording with photoplaples – researchers have determined that fragments of the territories of two groups of family wolves occur in the research area. Then they analyzed the content of 109 wolf droppings to determine the composition of their food.

It turned out that in the region of the Warta Warta estate, they feed on the wild hooves, which accounted for as much as 81.9 percent. food biomass they consume. They completed their diet with beavers and hares, whose total share was reached by 14.5 percent. Contrary to expectations, pets were rarely eaten, and cattle were only 3 percent. food. Research was published in the European Journal of Wildlife Research. The low level of wolf predation on cattle and lack of predation on horses at the Warta mouth may result from grazing methods. Living in conditions similar to natural allows both species of pets to show behaviors typical of large free -living herbivores, such as accumulation in large herds and self -defense. Another factor may be that mainly the cattle of meat breeds and cold -blooded horses are grazed here. Such breeds are much heavier and more muscular, making them a more difficult prey. Another reason may be the fact that in the Warta estate area most cows are not deprived of horns. Removal of cattle horns can reduce its ability to defend against predators, and this practice is particularly intensive in Northern and Central Europe, where the wolf population develops – the authors of the study commented on the press release sent to PAP. – Our research has confirmed that the predation of wolves on farm animals depends on the context. In the case of free grazing of large farm animals, such as meat cattle and cold -blooded horses, the influence of wolves may be smaller than expected – pointed out the co -author of the project dr hab. Robert Mysłajek from the Faculty of Biology of the University of Warsaw, professor of this university. – Earlier studies have shown that the interactions between wolves and farm animals depend to a large extent on the environment, grazing methods, knowledge of breeders on damage prevention methods, the availability of wild species of victims and the stability of family groups of wolves – emphasized the co -author of the article by dr hab. Sabina Nowak, prof. UW. – For these reasons, by counteracting potential conflict situations, all these aspects should be taken into account before starting solutions that include lethal methods – she added.

According to data published in March this year. (in “Plos Sustainability and Transformation”, co -authors of, among others, professors Nowak and Mysłajka) Until 2022, there were at least 21.5 thousand wolves in Europe, of which 19,000 in the Union countries. This is a huge growth; Research published in 2015 spoke about 12,000 wolves. The authors of this study emphasized that wild animals in Europe share space with a large population of people and live in a strongly transformed landscape, in which crops, bred animals are carried out, where hunting takes place, villages and city villages and infrastructure develop. Scientists remind you that the presence of wolves often means conflicts between the behavior and needs of this species and human fears and needs. In Europe, these conflicts mainly relate to the protection of breeding animals, competition with hunting hunters, as well as fear of meetings of people with wolves. In Plos, it was reminded that about 19,000 wolves in the EU kill about 56,000 farm animals every year, with a total of 279 million. This means that the average wolf from the EU are killing three breeding animals annually. The risk differs depending on the region. In the meeting with the wolf, sheep and goats usually die (two -thirds of losses), although there is also cattle, horses, reindeer and dogs. Relatively the most losses were recorded in Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Norway and Spain, which may result from the local grazing model and other losses of losses.