Out & About January 2017

The conservation projects One of the four main aims of the UK Wolf Conservation Trust is to raise money to help fund wolf-related conservation projects around the world. To date, nearly £300,000 has been donated by the Trust to a variety of projects around the world, from Kazahkstan and Ethiopia to Iran and the USA.

ETHIOPIA

NEPAL

RUSSIA

FRANCE

Donations from the UKWCT, amounting to £11,000 since 2014, are helping to support the French project, CanOvis. It is studying the effectiveness of using livestock guardian dogs (LDGs) to deter wolves in an area in the south east of the country, including the mountains of Mercantour and the Canjeurs Plateau. The project, which began three years ago, has already collected a great deal of data using GPS collars to track LGDs and sheep. It is hoped the research will improve the training of LGDs and increase their efficiency as sheep protectors.

Since 2007 the UKWCT has donated more than £49,000 to the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme (EWCP), which has been working for the conservation of Ethiopian wolves (Canis simensis) and the Afroalpine habitat for the past two decades. The Ethiopian wolf, which is critically endangered, is found only in Ethiopia and its survival is closely linked to the persistence of healthy Afroalpine ecosystems. It is one of the world’s most threatened species and is Africa’s most endangered carnivore. It is found in seven isolated habitats in the Ethiopian highlands, above 3,500m. EWCP is based out of the Bale Mountains National Park in south- eastern Ethiopia, from where seven wolf monitors work in the field following the wolves and collecting data on their behaviour, breeding success and health. The team also comprises more than 30 local people, including research ssistants, education and outreach officers and veterinary officers.

For the last five years the UKWCT has provided funding to the Friends of Nature in Kathmandu to aid its data collection on wolves in the area. Little is known about the distribution of wolves in Nepal and there is no baseline information on their status, behaviour, population estimates and range. It is hoped that the information collected will help assess the status of grey wolf in the proposed study area, identify and document the prevalent threats to the wolves and document the ethno-wolf relation in the area.

The UKWCT has been working with the Wolf Advocating Company since 2006, providing nearly £45,000 in funding in that time. In some parts of Russia, a bounty is offered for every hunted wolf. What the hunter then does with that wolf is up to them, so Vladimir Bologov has made it his mission to try to rescue wolf pups, rear them and return them to the wild. His work also includes research on wolf ecology, wolf control methods and aspects of the wolf/ human conflict. The group works out of the Central Forest Nature Reserve and the Biological Station Chisty Les, which also now includes an education centre, built with the help of funds from the UKWCT. An area of 12,000 hectares around the biological station now has protected status.

Pictures: p13 Tsa and Roger Palmer with Quatro Tsa and Roger with their children Zannah, Lara and Johnny, and wolves Kodiak and Kenai. Left: Tsa today with Mai, picture: Phil Cannings

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