The Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda of the Generalitat de Catalunya has confirmed the presence of a wolf in the Albera Natural Park , in the Alt Empordà region (Alt Empordà), after last week a worker of the nature reserve detected a dead goat with signs of having been depredated quite far away from the area where the herd was. After notifying the Rural Agents, the protocol for verifying damage to livestock caused by wildlife was activated, who, together with the management of the area, the Department of Climate Action and the Rural Agents, decided to install a camera trap in the area to be able to capture images of the fauna present in the sector.
After reviewing the camera there was no doubt the next day: it was a male wolf that was walking through this region of the eastern end of the Pyrenees.
This is an outstanding finding that shows that there are already four specimens of this animal that have been detected and identified in different areas of Catalonia (in areas such as Ripollès, Moianès and Port del Comte).
Once the presence of the wolf has been confirmed, the owner of the goat has been compensated and livestock material has been transferred to protect the animals that sleep outside and, therefore, are unprotected.
What will happen from now?
According to the protocol , the Rural Agents team will start a specific monitoring in the area by means of more camera traps, as well as the search for signs and the discovery of possible biological samples (hair, feces, urine, etc.) that allow their genetic analysis and , with it, your identification.
Is the wolf passing through this region? Is it a fixed population of wolves, that is, is there a settled population in the area? What geographical area does the wolf occupy in Catalonia according to these discoveries? All these questions await to be answered with the exhaustive study of the presence of the wolf in Catalonia.
