A battle is unfolding in Europe over the future of wolves

After a wolf killed her horse, EU President Ursula von der Leyen pushed to weaken wolf protections. In Italy, Valeria Roselli lost her dog to wolves—but chose coexistence.

Fear shouldn't drive policy. Science and compassion must lead. #StandforWolves #WolfConservation #Wolf

🔗 https://www.npr.org/2025/07/09/g-s1-72664/wolves-europe-conservation

via: Wolf Conservation Center on Bsky

Wolf recovery efforts undermined by policy and propaganda from anti-wildlife groups and agencies. #WolfConservation #WildlifeProtection #EnvironmentalPolicy

https://westernwatersheds.substack.com/p/wolves-in-the-crosshairs-from-policy

Indian Grey Wolf: A comeback from the brink

https://youtu.be/XUckMEQ8TRk?si=M6KEfjPczIci9zJ0

#IndianGreyWolf #GreyWolf #WolvesOfIndia #BankapurWolfSanctuary #WolfConservation #WildlifeIndia #KarnatakaWildlife #WolfPack #IndianWildlife #SaveTheWolves #GreyWolfPups

Indian Grey Wolf: A comeback from the brink

https://youtu.be/XUckMEQ8TRk?si=M6KEfjPczIci9zJ0

#IndianGreyWolf #GreyWolf #WolvesOfIndia #BankapurWolfSanctuary #WolfConservation #WildlifeIndia #KarnatakaWildlife #WolfPack #IndianWildlife #SaveTheWolves #GreyWolfPups

The Myth of Historic Range in Wolf Conservation

As you might know, the European Commission is moving forward with the proposal to lower the protection status of wolves in the EU. This reliably sparks fierce discussions online. Here, I want to focus on a specific element of these discussions: the historic range. The term is used in various contexts, but the underlying argument is usually the same. It is used to argue that wolf population recovery in Europe is insufficient and, therefore, lowering their protection status is unsubstantiated or even harmful and contrary to the conservation objectives set out by the Habitats Directive.

There is a big problem with that concept, though. The issue is that it is impossible to place it in time and therefore understand what it was. While in the case of the North American continent or Australia, we might anchor the historic range at the time of the arrival of Europeans (despite this being a rather colonial point of view, ignoring peoples living in those lands before), it equally makes no sense in the case of Europe, which species of Homo have inhabited for 400,000 years.

The real issue here is that a portion of conservationists and nature restoration fans are treating ecosystems or species restoration as finite projects. In their view, a conservation or restoration effort has a natural end when it can be deemed completed. The same thinking seems to be applied to the ecosystems. Assuming that there was, in the past, a stable and static natural state and that we should strive in our restoration efforts to go back to it. Of course, anyone who knows anything about ecology knows this notion is nonsensical.

Ecosystems change all the time. They are influenced by an immense number of factors, some of which are unknown or have an unknown influence on other factors. Some parameters of such systems are irreversibly changed over time. This makes attempts to go back in time futile. I’m not saying that knowledge of the previous state of the ecosystem or distribution of species is not useful, or that it cannot or shouldn’t be used as guidance. But guidance is the operative word here. Forgive me for stating the obvious, we’re not going to turn back time. The only way is forward, and that means taking into account conditions, factors and constraints that exist at present.

And so, I observed with a mixture of bafflement and amusement arguments breaking out over whether wolves should be restored to their historic range or native range. Of course, both notions are reflections of human wants and desires. They are essentially the same thing, the difference is only in people’s minds arbitrarily placing a dot on the timeline of the past. Wolves don’t know anything about this and will do what wolves do, as they have done for millennia.

Projects like wolf conservation or restoration are not finite. For example, if we decide to restore the wolf population to the British Isles, that project will only ever be complete in one of two cases. Wolves will be extirpated all over again or all humans will be gone. This point of view inevitably captures the very nature of such projects. They are human-driven but, more importantly, human-centric. Such a project is a human action to counter the results of past human actions. Without humans, there would be no wolf restoration or wolf extirpation – depending on where one would like to put their arbitrary and highly subjective point of reference in time.

#Biodiversity #conservationDebate #conservationGoals #ecologicalChange #ecosystemRestoration #environmentalPolicy #europeanCommission #HabitatsDirective #historicRange #humanImpact #restorationEfforts #speciesRecovery #wildlifeManagement #wolfConservation #wolfPopulation

168: Coexistence with Wolves in Estonia with Helen Arusoo

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2SacXgnHbTR90b9C9AIjJQ

On my podcast, we talk a lot about coexistence with large carnivores and the challenges it poses. Some of those challenges might seem insurmountable to some. To shed some light on overcoming these hurdles, I contacted Helen Arusoo, an Estonian nature journalist and the leader of the National Animal Working Group. In this conversation, we talk about how Estonia overcame these hurdles and created something that I would consider the gold standard of coexistence with large carnivores.

https://youtu.be/d1F8YtfrpD0

Unsurprisingly, the majority of our time was spent discussing wolves as they seem to be the most difficult carnivore species to coexist with, at least in the northern hemisphere. However, we did discuss other large carnivores like bears too. Our conversation focused mostly on social and cultural factors. We also touched on the European Commission’s proposal to lower the protection status of wolves, something we’ve discussed extensively in one of the previous episodes.

It was a wonderful conversation and I enjoyed speaking with Helen. Her profound understanding of the challenges of coexistence is impressive. She presented a deeply thought-out perspective and I can only wish that more people who care about wolves could learn from her experience and the Estonian model of coexistence with large carnivores.

#animals #coexistenceWithLargeCarnivores #coexistenceWithWolves #CoexistenceWithWolvesInEstonia #Conservation #Estonia #HateredOfWolf #HelenArusoo #HumanWildlifeConflice #largeCarnivores #nationalAnimalOfEstonia #NationalAnimalWorkingGroup #Podcast #Susi #tommysoutdoors #Wildlife #Wolf #wolfConservation #WolfHunting #wolfManagement #Wolves

#TuesdayColumn: The new year launches #Sweden's largest #WolfHunt since the eradication of the 19th century, with the long goal of halving the population the since recently #CriticallyEndangered species. #WolfConservation #environmentalism #politics #conservationism #writing

Lead for the Wolf:
https://wastedwordsweb.wordpress.com/2023/01/03/lead-for-the-wolf/