Living with bears and wolves in Trentino is really possible if they are implemented prevention measures aimed at improving their coexistence. These include anti-bear bins, electrified fences, guard dogs and information campaigns aimed at citizens.
The experts say it but also the numbers. What speaks for itself is the drop in complaints of predation damage received in the area, an indication that the initiatives “must be promoted with ever greater incisiveness”. This was stated by the National Animal Protection Agency, commenting on the data presented in the second meeting of the Large Carnivore Table of the Autonomous Province of Trento.
If the path taken appears remotely to be the right one, with the actions mentioned to be strengthened without a shadow of a doubt, the numerous cases of bears and wolves found dead in Trentino continue to cause concern.
Unfortunately, the decline in reported predation episodes does not coincide with a decline in deaths among large carnivores. In 2023 the death of 8 bears brown in Trentino, to which is added a person who died in Tyrol following an investment.
However, 14 wolves will die in 2023 in Trentino, of which 5 male and 9 female individuals. Of these, 11 were killed in road/railway collisions, 2 were victims of poaching and for only one subject the cause of death appears to be natural.
This is what emerges from Large Carnivores Report 2023 of the Forestry and Wildlife Service of the Autonomous Province of Trento, which monitors the populations of bear, wolf, lynx and golden jackal distributed across the regional territory.
Even this year, however, things don’t seem to be going any better for wild predators. Since the beginning of 2024, 8 bears and 10 wolves have already lost their lives. For Enpa, this massacre is the result of an anti-bear and anti-wolf policy which “could soon significantly worsen the conservation status of these species”.
The same goes for the laws approved for the annual killing quotas and the quotas of bears and wolves compatible with the territory, which have no scientific basis. Enpa highlights the danger of these measures, recalling that the common objective should be the protection of wild animals and not their decline.
Sources: ENPA – Large Carnivores Autonomous Province of Trento
