130925-studie-wildlife-comeback-in-europe

Estimate Year assessed Reference
Global 200,000 Unknown
[12]
Europe 11,533–12,358 2009–13
[16]
% of global population 7%
Iberia 2,450 2013
[16]
Western Alps >160 2009–11
[8]
Italian Peninsula 600–800 2012
[8]
Dinaric-Balkan 3,900 2009–11
[8]
Carpathian (not including
southwestern Ukraine)
3,000 2009–12
[8]
Baltic (not including Belarus,
northern Ukraine and Russia)
870–1400 2010–11
[8]
Karelian (not including Russian
oblasts of Karelia and Murmansk)
150–165 2012
[8]
Scandinavian 260–330 2012
[8]
Central Europe 143–153 2012
[8]
Table 2.
Latest population
estimates for the Grey
wolf globally, in Europe
and for European
populations. Please
note that the European
estimate excludes
Belarus, Ukraine and
European Russia,
and the number of
European wolves is
likely to be higher than
indicated, as Russia is
believed to support the
largest population.
to limited management resulting from political
instability, but areas of human pressure remain,
e.g. Slovenia and northern Greece [15] . Threats
include legal hunting and illegal killing, poisoning,
habitat fragmentation due to construction of roads
and shortage of wild prey [15, 18] .
The near quarter of European wolves in the
Carpathian population (excluding the Ukraine)
occur in several countries from northern Bulgaria
to eastern Serbia [15] , including Slovakia, Poland and
Romania [17] , with limited reports from the Czech
Republic [15] . It is thought to be the only link between
the northern and southern European populations [19] .
Despite conservation efforts in Romania, pressures
exist in the marginal areas of the range, e.g. southern
Poland and Slovakia [15] , where management regimes
need to be applied across borders. In addition, poison
baits and illegal killing are widespread [15] , and habitat
fragmentation is a problem [19] .
Iberian wolves account for around 20% of the
European population and are found in the northwest
of the peninsula [15] . Although a game species in Spain,
the wolf is protected in the south, and compensation
schemes are in place which vary by region [17] .
Compensation for livestock damage is also paid in
Portugal, where the species is fully protected and the
trend is stable [17] . The Iberian wolf is classified as Near
Threatened due to fragmentation in management
regimes, the lack of a management plan at the
population level, and the occurrence of unpredictable
human persecution at a local level, such as
poisoning and shooting [15] . The small population in
the Sierra Morena mountains in southern Spain is
Critically Endangered due to its genetic isolation [15] .
The Baltic population of wolves, which accounts
for 7–12% of European individuals (not including
Belarus, northern Ukraine and Russia), covers
eastern Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia [15] .
Due to its large size and unfragmented range, the
98