It will be easier to monitor wolves from Poland and Germany

The authors of the document are experts from Germany (Ilka Reinhard and Gesa Kluth from the German Institute for Wolf Monitoring and Research LUPUS) and Poland - Dr. Sabina Nowak from the Association for Nature WOLF and Dr. Robert Mysłajek from the Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw. "Common standards will allow for comparison of data obtained in both countries and assessment of the number of cross-border family groups of wolves" - Dr. Mysłajek told PAP.

The proposal for monitoring standards of the German-Polish wolf population has been published by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. The document defines the methods used in monitoring and its adoption will facilitate the analysis and interpretation of data.

"Monitoring standards are of course only a proposal, a kind of good practice, which is worth implementing in order to achieve a common goal. Its application depends on the financial capabilities of both countries. It is not an official document" - explained Dr. Mysłajek.

He reminded that the work on standards lasted three years. One of its elements was international workshop on monitoring methods with the participation of specialists from Germany, Poland, Austria, Sweden and Italy. "The basis for the creation of the proposal for monitoring standards were the experiences of researchers from many countries" - he emphasised.

Polish-German wolf population, called the Central European population, is still considered to be endangered. It consists of wolves recolonizing Western Poland and Germany, and more recently also the Netherlands and Denmark. Wolf’s return to these areas was made possible by covering this predator with protection in Poland in 1998 - emphasised the expert from the University of Warsaw.

It is also one of the fastest expanding population of wolves in Europe.

Joint management of protected species populations, the range of which is divided by national borders, is one of the recommendations of the European Commission. "The basis for population management is the assessment of distribution and numbers of species, but in order to be able to compare the data from individual countries, they should be collected using unified methodology. Therefore, proposals for uniform methodologies are being made. The best example is a common methodology for lynx monitoring in the Alps" - explained Dr. Mysłajek.

According to the document, experts engaged in research on wolves from both countries should meet every year to present the results of monitoring in each country, jointly assess the status of cross-border territories of wolves and estimate the impact of differences in methodology on the obtained results. The result of these meetings would be an annual report on the situation of the Central European wolf population, joint assessment of population size, and a map of the distribution of the species.

The document recommends a gradual improvement and unification of monitoring standards. It also suggests that other countries sharing the same population, e.g. the Czech Republic (and in the future probably also Denmark and the Netherlands) should participate in the meetings and apply the proposed standards.

Poland and Germany have been working together to protect the wolf for five years, and the initiative to create a Polish-German wolf working group was made in 2009. The first meeting of the group, which includes representatives of nature conservation services of both countries and experts (from Poland it is Dr. Sabina Nowak) was held in 2010. The group produced two reports: the first concerned the comparison of the management of the wolf population in both countries, the second concerns the monitoring standards.

Wolves in Poland have been exterminated for centuries, as a consequence they disappeared from most forests, and only several dozen of them remained in the whole country. The situation worsened due to wolf hunting, common in the 1970s. Since 1998, the species is protected throughout the country. It is estimated that currently approx. 1,000 of these animals live in Poland.

In Germany, wolves were completely eradicated in the nineteenth century. Since, however, these animals are prone to distant wanderings and colonization of new areas, in the second half of the twentieth century more than 40 individuals from Poland appeared in the north-east of Germany. Most were shot or killed on the roads. The species was finally covered with strict protection in 1980. Currently, the German population of wolves continues to grow.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

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