Radios may save wolves from extinction

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33676, 28 October 1974, Page 18

Radios may save wolves from extinction

By N .Z.PA.-Reuter correspondent

NICHOLAS PARSONS)

ROME, Running about somewhere in the Abruzzi region of central Italy are three wolves wearing radio transmitters around their necks.

They were captured audit equipped with the transmit-!, ters in the spring as part of (I a campaign to clean up the it wolf’s evil image and ensure ii his continued survival. For, despite the convictions u of most Italians, who read I i every winter of packs ofji hungry wolves driven down (I by the snow to attack farmh animals and even humans, researchers say that in factp i there are only about 120 i . wolves left in the whole , country. I They say that most of the (attacks blamed on wolves [during the winter are in fact I made by dogs which have I run wild. ! The research, and the ( rehabilitation campaign, is j I being sponsored by the ■ Italian section of the World i Wildlife Fund, with attention Ifocusing on the Abruzzi and I its national park. 13 FRIENDS The team is led by Professor Luigi Boitani of I’Aquila University, who has been joined by Erik Zimen of the Max Plank Institute in Sieewesen, known for his habit of living in a Bavarian forest with 13 wolves for company. David Mack of the United States Wildlife and Fisheries Bureau, an acknowledged

iexpert of wolves, and Helmut JI Jungius of the World Wild-il Jlife Fund, have also corned Ito F Aquila to join the i i research team. p I The aim is to discover asp [much as possible about the I [habits of wolves so as top [devise means of preventing!: i their extinction — hence the'ji (radio collars. I 1 I The Italian Government is I co-operating by placing a i national ban on shooting or : otherwise killing wolves, and : the Abruzzi regional administration has offered full indemnity for any damage ( done by wolves while the ban is in force. POACHING i But there is the continued (problem of poaching, which is why the research team is eager to persuade the public that wolves do not deserve their long-standing reputation as savage killers. The researchers are keen to see their campaign spread . through other European . countries, and their cause has ; been taken up by the W.W.F.. which has drawn up ; a list of countries in which i wolves still survive, and the • extent to which they are threatened. I According to Professor ; Boitani’s team, wolves are 1 already virtually extinct m

Norway, Sweden and Finland. despite hunting bans in , Norway and Sweden. - Killing wolves is encour-j aged in Eastern Europe, | (Portugal and Spain and the! (Soviet Union, the researchers! [say. They emphasise that] (any campaign to save_ the (species would require interI national co-operation, since (the animals frequently live (in rugged border areas, passing from one country to another at will. In the Abruzzi, the research team is particularly pleased with one of their transmitting wolves. He got into a fight with a deer which had also been provided with a radio collar giving the team a chance for first-hand examination of the wolf’s hunting and feeding habits. Devaluation Brazil will devalue the cruzeiro by 1.26 per cent ( tomorrow. The new buying I rate per United States I dollar will be 7.18 , cruzeiros, and the sell- . ing rate, 7.22. It is Brazil's . ninth mini-devaluation against the dollar this year, ■ bringing the total devalua- ■ tion to 16.18 per cent. — i Rio de Janeiro, October 27.