130925-studie-wildlife-comeback-in-europe

trend is very stable [15] . It should be noted, however,
that this population is likely to be much larger
than indicated, as Russia is believed to support a
significant number of wolves [12] . The Baltic wolves
thus play an important role in connecting with
the Karelian population, and dispersing into the
Carpathian and Dinaric-Balkan populations and
towards Germany [15] . In terms of threats, there are
indications that the Latvian population may be
divided if no action is taken, thus risking isolating
individuals in the west of the country [15] .
Abundance and distribution: changes
Once widespread across the continent [5] , the range
of the Grey wolf has severely contracted over the
last few centuries [7] , with a 49% reduction taking
place between 1800 and 1950–60 (Figures 1a and
b) due to the increase in the human population [7] .
This undoubtedly represented a continuation of
a historical Europe-wide decrease in the species
prior to this, as has been observed in mainland
France (Figure 2). Here, the distribution contracted
by over 70% for each interval between 1793 and
1918, reaching 7% of its 1792 distribution at the end
of the first World War (Figure 2). In Scandinavia,
declines started in the 19 th century, which left only
a small remnant in the north by the beginning of
the 1900s [20] . Between the 1930s and 1960s, populations
were at their lowest throughout Eurasia [21] ,
and the species was indeed extirpated from France
by 1960 [12] . Bounties were paid for killed wolves in
Scandinavia as late as the mid-1960s, and when
the wolf was finally protected in 1966 in Sweden,
it was already functionally extinct in the region [22] .
In Spain, the wolf was known to occur in only 50%
of its 1840 range by 1950 [23] . Since then, recoveries
have been observed in many European countries
and regions resulting from legal protection, e.g. in
Scandinavia, eastern Europe, the western Balkans,
the Alps, Italy and Iberia (Figure 1b). In northern
Spain, the range of the species doubled between
1970 and 2008 [12, 23] . In France, wolves first re-entered
from Italy without human assistance in the early
1990s [24] and with natural recolonisation both in
the southeast of the country and, more recently,
in the southwest along the border with Spain [24] ,
the wolf has been able to recover to 4% of its 1792
distribution (Figure 2). Populations have also
reappeared in Sweden, Germany and Switzerland
(where the wolf had been absent since the 1800s),
and vagrant animals occur in Austria. While
territory has been lost in areas of Spain, Italy, the
Balkans, Greece, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia,
these are balanced by the observed expansions,
leading to a 1% increase in range since 1960 and
Figure 1a. Distribution of European Grey wolf in 1800 [25] , 1950–60 [12, 23, 25] and
2008 [15] . Please note that areas further east were omitted due to limited data
availability. Dotted range in Scandinavia indicates unlikely presence, as the
species was presumed functionally extinct by the mid-1960s [22] .
Figure 1b. Map highlighting areas of range expansion, persistence and
contraction of the Grey wolf in Europe between 1960 and 2008. Please
note that some of the contraction observed may be due to differences in the
resolution of the maps.
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