On the night between 25 and 26 August 2026, a task force led by the Provincial Police of Cremona completed the capture of the wolf renamed Gianni, a specimen that had been habitually wandering between the municipalities of Gadesco Pieve Delmona and Persico Dosimo for months. The precision operation was made possible by the use of a drone with a thermal camera, which led a team made up of a veterinary anesthetist, an expert naturalist and a wildlife technician.
@Provincial Police of Cremona
The blitz, carried out under the direct operational coordination of the Lombardy Region, ISPRA and ERSAF, ended with the controlled putting of the large canid to sleep using a narcotic dart, putting an end to its nocturnal incursions between urban centres, public roads and industrial settlements.
From sightings to familiarity: the issue of the “confident” wolf
The first reports of the animal’s presence date back to last February, when the predator was immortalized in the industrial area of Gadesco Pieve Delmona. As the months passed, the animal progressively lost its natural distrust towards humans, moving close to private homes and even allowing itself to be approached within a short distance.
A conditioning process favored by the incorrect behavior of some residents, who, ignoring institutional prohibitions, began to regularly feed him easy food and plastic scraps and waste. The situation reached the point of no return in recent weeks in Persico Dosimo, when a local inhabitant went so far as to let the animal into his fenced garden in order to restrain it and alert the police, demonstrating the cancellation of the safety distance.
Genetic tests and protests from the local community
The animal is currently in the custody of experts to undergo biological sampling and detailed DNA tests. These scientific tests will allow us to define the exact genetic identity and trace the population of origin before proceeding with its definitive transfer to a suitable wild habitat, clearly distant from inhabited centres.
However, the intervention of the Provincial Police of Cremona sparked a wave of controversy and protests on social channels. For a large part of the local population, in fact, Gianni did not represent a danger but a familiar presence that many had grown fond of. However, zoologists reiterated the need for capture: the animal’s growing boldness and the association between the human figure and food could have caused serious accidents or biting people, scenarios that could have led to its killing.
