Vilko populiacijos valdymas turi būti grįstas faktais | Miske.lt

Wolf population management must be evidence-based

The relentless and silent theme of wolves – two opposing approaches – the management of a wolf population by hunting against total interference with the natural life processes of wolf gangs. Everyone knows that the wolf is a protected species, which, in accordance with Lithuania’s obligations in the EU and internationally, must be ensured a favorable conservation status. Unfortunately, the lack of fact-based data on the ecology of Lithuanian wolves does not allow state institutions to reliably argue the decisions made regarding the management of the wolf population.

damage to livestock, observed effects on wildlife, the spread of rabies, and farmers and hunters are calling for a reduction in the wolf population. Environmental NGOs oppose this. The rest of the public becomes acquainted with the situation by visiting social networks, watching television programs or reading the press; as a result, opinion is also formed and actively expressed, thus social tension arises.

Wolves hunted during the 2018-2019 hunting season were sampled for genetic, age and reproductive research. The research was carried out by scientists from the Hunting Research Laboratory of the Vytautas Magnus University, Academy of Agriculture. The report on the results of these studies can be found on the website of the State Service for Protected Areas under the Ministry of Environment: https: //vstt.lrv.lt/lt/veiklos-sritys/biologines-ivairoves-apvédelmi/zveriu-apskaita .

At the end of the 2019-2020 hunting season, every wolf hunter was also contacted and came to take samples for testing. The results of these studies will be presented at the end of September. It is planned to re-submit the summarized data in the press, and again every hunter will be able to find out about the results of research on his specific wolf.

In the spring of 2020, the project “Ecological Research of the Wolf (Canis lupus)” initiated by the Lithuanian Science Council was launched, the aim of which is to study the structure and condition of the wolf population and the impact of wolves on livestock and wildlife. It is planned to study the demographic structure of the wolf population; to determine the number and size of wolf families and the change in the number of pups in the family; reveal wolf areas and dispersion; describe suitable wolf habitats and factors affecting their quality; to carry out research on the nutrition of wolves and to find out the regularities of damage caused by wolves to animal husbandry; provide research-based, reliable data on the state of the wolf population.

For the purposes of this research, scientists from the Hunting Research Laboratory of the Vytautas Magnus University Academy of Agriculture have started detailed research on wolf gangs in several places in Lithuania. Intensive observations are made in nature. Already in the winter, the stomachs of hunted wolves were collected for nutritional research, and the collection of excrement continues.

Based on these examples, the food ration will be analyzed based on the prey residues found. As far as possible, efforts shall be made to visit areas where wolves cause damage to livestock, with particular attention being paid to areas where damage is not being recorded for the first time. Researchers can already confirm from practice that far from all cases of damage are registered in municipalities. The problem of cutting domestic dogs left in the shadows also becomes apparent. There is currently no compensation for a dog slaughtered by wolves, so only very rare such cases are officially registered. However, researchers have already pointed out that wolves slaughter dogs throughout Lithuania and this is not uncommon.

At the beginning of the works, information on the distribution and abundance of wolves was collected from the managers of hunting area units and the boards of Alytus, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Marijampolė, Panevėžys, Šiauliai, Utena and Vilnius. In the spring of each year, the managers of hunting area units submit Requests for setting hunting limits for game for the following hunting season. These requests shall also include preliminary numbers of wolves per unit of hunting area. The collection of data on the preliminary number of wolves in hunting area units during the 2019-2020 hunting season revealed that wolves did not “live” in 54.7% of hunting area units.

Based on this data, would it turn out that wolf habitats do not cover more than half of the hunting units? However, we are aware of a number of examples where there are wolves in the area of a hunting unit and the number of wolves is not given in the application form or entered as zero.

There were also opposite examples, when the territory of the hunting area unit “accommodated” over twenty wolves or even 39 wolves 6 thousand. ha per hunting area. But it should also be mentioned that 26% of the managers of hunting area units declared that 2-5 wolves lived in their territory. We’d like to believe that most of the data reflects the real situation, but some cases need to be checked.

Hunters often enter zero in the “wolf box” because wolves are rarely or only observed at certain times of the year in their area. However, if wolf activity has been observed in the last one year, then this area belongs to the wolf gang, so the preliminary number of registered individuals should be entered in the table to be filled in. Summarizing such data will show the distribution and abundance of wolves; these data do not reveal the number of wolves or their families.

Based on the information provided in the Requests for Game Hunting Limits for the 2019-2020 hunting season, 195 hunting area units were selected whose managers considered that 5 or more wolves lived in their territory. This amount of wolf activity could not go unnoticed throughout the year. However, more than half of the managers of such hunting units did not submit any notifications to www.biomon.lt via for the last years 2019 and 2020 (period from 01.01.2019 to 01.07.2020).

Another 21% of managers submitted one report at a time (usually not the highest reliability and smaller numbers of wolves). Thus, we find another “proof” that wolves are “almost non-existent” in Lithuania. Then, on what basis to distinguish wolf population management? Where the law provides for population management to be based on evidence-based monitoring data in a single system. A separate sentence should mention the managers who declared the highest wolf abundance (over 20 wolves) in the applications, who www.biomon.lt < / a> has not submitted any reports since 2019 or has submitted reports reflecting several times lower numbers of wolves.

The situation reviewed shows a severe “lack” of evidence-based data. The word “deficiency” is enclosed in quotation marks purposefully, because the data is available, only they are scattered on social networks and media, lying in the memories of automatic video recording cameras, telephones or computers. This data is a good treasure trove of information, a copy of which is worth submitting to http://www.biomon.lt .

Therefore, we appeal to all hunters, foresters, naturalists and invite you to photograph and / or film wolves or signs of their activity and provide information www.biomon.lt in the system administered by the State Service for Protected Areas under the Ministry of Environment.

When registering large predators all year round, go to www.biomon.lt you should go in the following order: “Animal counting maps” → “Enable map” → “Data submission”. Then click “Add” → “Use the mouse to mark the location where the case was registered on the map” → “Fill in the data requested in the table” and “Save”. The www.biomon.lt system not only registers reports of big predators all year round, but also hunters completes annual surveys based on traces of snow
and provides data on hunted wolves.

The system is designed to be easy to fill in correctly. It is very important to add photo (s) or video when filling in the information. If you’ve seen a wolf but haven’t been able to take a picture of it, it’s worth going to the place where the wolf was and taking pictures of the traces. A photo or video provided allows the report to be given a higher level of confidence (at a higher level of confidence, fewer messages are sufficient to prove the presence of wolves in the area). When registering wolf tracks, two photos should be provided: one below to see the number of wolves past, and the other, photographing the brightest single trace with an object of known size next to it vertically from above.

If you currently have data on the presence of wolves up to one year old (from 01/09/2019), it is worth taking the time to upload them to the common data system by 01/09/2020. Please note that under the current rules, a wolf family is registered when a group of wolves consists of at least four individuals registered at the same time.

Hunters have a great deal of high-reliability data proving the presence of wolves – photos and videos from automatic video recording cameras. By presenting this information into a unified system, we would obtain detailed information on the distribution and abundance of wolves throughout the country. The more particles in place in the Puzzle, the easier it is to see the whole real picture. If hunters are concerned about the safety of the location of their cameras, the location point can be placed at the other end of the block or in an adjacent quarter. The location error of one kilometer does not significantly affect the final result of the study. It is much more important to have reliable data from each wolf gang in general.