Siberian Federal University Experts to Analyse Lifestyle and Behaviour of Wolves

Researchers from the School of Ecology and Geography (SibFU) study the wolf population in Evenkia to clarify the number of grey predators and prepare a plan to control the spreading of wolf packs. Thus, the experts intend to secure the herds of wild and domestic reindeer, whose numbers steadily decline in Evenkia and the Taimyr Peninsula due to climate warming and the active development of northern territories by humans.

In the recent years, wolves have posed a serious threat to farm-raised deer. Krasnoyarsk scientists are going to present a program on regulating the predator population taking into account the territorial behaviour and role in the ecosystem. As practice shows, the simple removal of wolves is not effective. So, the task is not to destroy full-grown wolves with formed packs and maintained territories, but to reduce the number of alien packs, thus acting in concert with the territorial wolves.

“We are to analyse the number of wolves currently populating the northern and middle taiga zones of Evenkia, and the interfluve of the Lower Tunguska and Podkamennaya Tunguska. The adopted winter route census methodology is based on counting traces and gives a very rough estimate. So we are going to achieve the desired results through counting the wolf dens. To us, the best solution to the problem of population regulation is the removal of stray homeless wolves,” shared Anatoly Suvorov, study lead, senior researcher at the School of Ecology and Geography, Siberian Federal University.

According to the researcher, the behaviour of lone wolves is more aggressive, as they can destroy much more deer than is required for food. At the same time, the population of wolves is not too large for the vast territory of Evenkia.

“It usually turns out that it is humans who are guilty of a wolf attack on deer, as they did not keep an eye on the domestic herd, the deer joined the wild brothers, but they do not know how to defend themselves as opposed to wild species. The control measures that we want to propose to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology should be balanced, selective and primarily address the problem of lone wolves, which are the most dangerous for both deer and humans. In addition, the basis of our work should be identifying and mapping dens, as it was successfully practiced in Soviet hunting management,” added Anatoly Suvorov.