13 September 2005

On Tuesday, 13 September 2005 , this year's 8th meeting of the Committee for Monitoring Large Carnivores Populations of the Ministry of Culture took place. The main topics of the meeting were an overview of the status of lynx and wolf populations in Croatia and possible interventions in the populations of these large carnivores. Experts of the School of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Zagreb emphasized the insufficiency of the research into the lynx population and the downward trend indicated by the data available.
The State Institute for Nature Protection presented the 2005 Report on the Lynx Population Status based on the results of scientific research carried out to date, data on the number of damages, impact on the game and assessments of chartered experts of the Ministry of Culture. The population is estimated at 190 individuals divided into about 40 packs.It is stable and shows an upward trend in the area of the County Šibensko-kninska.

On the basis of the data presented the Committee concluded that no intervention in the lynx population might be allowed, because it would seriously deteriorate the already poor status of the population. Earlier this year, considering the results of the several-years monitoring of the wolf population and the current status and following the provisions of the Plan for Wolf Management in Croatia , the Committee concluded that death (road collision, kill and other causes of wolf mortality suffered regularly for various reasons) of 15 individuals might be tolerated on 2005. This does not imply a 10 per cent reduction in the population, because wolves are capable of making up for even a much greater loss of their population in one year. This is also proved by the fact that since introduction of wolf conservation its population has been showing an upward trend despite the illegal kill still present and construction of roads crossing the wolf habitats. Until 5 September 2005 the death of 11 wolves was recorded and a limited intervention covering 4 wolves was proposed, which, according to the Committee opinion, would not degrade the status of the wolf population, but rather mitigate animosities threatening the conservation of this species. Namely, as stressed by the Committee, the co-existence of humans and the wolf has always been characterized by conflicts.

In this context it is primarily important to separate the economic component, i.e. the problem of damages caused to the livestock by wolves and their impact on the game. As a rule, the wolf is illegally killed and the relevant information is not communicated to competent authorities, which makes it impossible to punish and claim damages of 40,000 kunas from the person responsible for this illegal act. For that reason the conservation of wolves in Croatia depends exclusively on man and on mitigation of conflicts between humans and the wolf.

The animosity towards the wolf is additionally intensified by mass media presenting the wolf as a markedly "bloodthirsty" animal and making the information about the damage caused by wolves the lead story regardless of the fact that they attack animals primarily for the need for food. Therefore a lot of effort has been put into minimization of those problems. In this regard, in addition to damages paid by the competent Ministry, considerable investments and efforts are made with respect to pen guardian and electric fences donation programme through the international wolf conservation project implemented by the State Institute for Nature Protection in collaboration with the School of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Zagreb, and consequently in the promotion of livestock protection measures with the aim to reduce damages.

One of the mechanisms to reduce the problem as provided for by the Plan for Wolf Management in Croatia is an intervention in the wolf population limited in time and space, but exclusively under the condition that the wolf population stability is not degraded. This possibility is also offered by international regulations signed by the Republic of Croatia and by the provisions of the Nature Protection Act. It should be noted that two public opinion polls have been conducted so far in the wolf occurrence area, showing among other things that a vast majority of respondents supports a controlled kill of wolves. On those grounds the Committee decided to allow the intervention, but solely through individual hunts in the hunting ground areas of Unešić in Dalmatia , Velinac in Lika and Bjelolasica in Gorski kotar in the period from 1 October to 31 December 2005 . In doing so no kill of telemetrically marked individuals is allowed. In case of an intervention the chartered expert of the Ministry of Culture must be immediately informed and the wolf killed must be sent to the School of Veterinary Medicine in Zagreb for a scientific treatment. This procedure is expected to ensure the control and selectivity of the intervention. As provided for by the Plan, this conservation regime will be implemented during a two-year test period. The future of its implementation will depend on the population stability and on the actual mitigation of animosities mentioned and thus on the illegal kill of wolves. The population status will be further strictly monitored, all decisions on interventions reviewed and all measures implemented with the aim to make it possible for Croatia to take pride in being a country inhabited by all three large carnivores: the wolf, the lynx and the brown bear.