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Beyond 2000:
Realities of Global Wolf Restoration
23-26 February 2000
Duluth, Minnesota USA
In 1987 and 1988, we carried out a survey on wolf status and conservation
problems in Spain. Wolves regularly occurred over 100,000 km2, mainly
in the north-western quarter of Spain. There were wolves in most of
Galicia, southern Asturias and Cantabria, the northern half of Castile
and Leon and some areas of La Rioja and the Basque Country. The total
wolf population was estimated to contain about 300 packs, i.e., approximately
1,500-2,000 wolves, with an average density of 1.5-2 wolves/100 km2.
The population in the northern half of Spain is continuous and has
been expanding since around 1970. This has been possible thanks to
the improvement in people's attitudes towards Nature, depopulation
of rural areas and increase in wild ungulates.
In addition, there were two remnant populations in the South—in
Extremadura and Sierra Morena—where a few packs may be left.
In the south of Spain, wolves live on large private ranches given
over to red deer hunting and are illegally killed to prevent damage
to game species.
According to several provincial or regional surveys Šnot covering
all the country- carried out from 1988 to 2000, in the large, northern
population there has been a slight increase in the northern and
the eastern boundaries; in the southern part of the northern population,
there has been an increase in density in the agricultural areas
that were colonised in the eighties, and expansion south of the
River Duero, which represented the boundary in 1988. We roughly
estimate (guess) there are some 2,000 wolves living in Spain. This
northern population has good potential for expansion, mainly towards
the south-east, where there are forested areas with not much livestock
and good densities of wild ungulates.
In the small populations of southern Spain, wolves are very scarce
in the Sierra Morena (around 5 packs estimated) and may be extinct
in Extremadura. These small populations are irrelevant to the total
Spanish population, but have attained a great symbolic value for
environmentalists.
In 1988, damage to livestock was estimated at around 120 million
pesetas (ptas) and was very unevenly distributed. Around 80% of
the damage was caused by 20% of the wolves living in mountain areas
(mainly the Cantabrian mountains), where livestock is left unprotected
for several months of the year. The total amount of damages might
be higher now because wolves have increased and are now tolerated
in areas with more livestock (possibly 200 million ptas?). Great
conflicts involving unguarded sheep have arisen in recently recolonised
areas of the Picos de Europa National Park and in the Basque Country,
where strict wolf control is preventing expansion toward the East.
Compensation is paid by some regional governments (mainly in the
Cantabrian mountains and in the south of Spain), but not in others.
In 1999, a total of 100-110 million ptas was paid by the different
regional governments. (1 USD=112 ptas in 1988;170 ptas in 2000).
Wolf management is under regional government jurisdiction. The
wolf is a game species north of the River Duero (in most of the
northern population) and is fully protected south of that river.
There is no national management plan and there are only a few regional
management plans. The hunting quota is more and more restrictive,
but illegal killing is widespread. About 100 wolves are legally
killed every year for hunting or control. Since 1997, controversy
about wolf management has become very emotive and aggressive, with
increasing polarisation between environmentalists and farmers.
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