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Beyond 2000:
Realities of Global Wolf Restoration
23-26 February 2000
Duluth, Minnesota USA
Ovidiu Ionescu, Ministry of Environment Romsilva, Forest
Research and Management Institute, Str Closca 13, RO-2200 Brasov,
Romania
In ancient times, the inhabitants of the actual territory of Romania
admired wolves. The flag of these people was a head of a wolf with
a dragon body. Wolves were the only species that hunted here in
a pack, that had a hunting strategy, and efficiently used the territory.
In modern times, the image of this animal was modified. With demographic
development and transforming of the natural landscape, the wolf
became the No.1 enemy. Bounties were established for killing and
capturing pups and adults. Periods of war were the only good times
for the wolves. Then, people were too occupied killing each other
to have time for hunting wolves. After World War II, the species
still occupied all Romania, from the Danube Delta to the Carpathian
Mountains. At the end of the 1950s, great persecution of wolves
started, using hunting, traps, and poison. Everything was allowed
for the destruction of the wolf population. As a result of this
campaign and the alteration of the habitat, at the beginning of
the 1970s, the wolf population fell to its lowest number in recent
years. Their territories were restricted only to the large forest
of the Carpathian Mountains, and the density was low. After this
period, as a result of the increasing number of prey and the forbidden
use of poison, wolves started slowly to recover both in number and
range. After Romania joined the Bern Convention, the protection
status of the species strongly improved, and the number has increased
again in recent years. Now, there is more and more pressure from
civil society to reopen the hunting season and increase the hunting
quota. The future of wolves is still uncertain in Romania, being
connected with the development of society and human perception of
large predators in this part of Europe, one of the few spots on
the continent where large carnivores still exist.
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