Wolves are being tracked for the first time in Turkey by KuzeyDoga Society and University of Utah,
with the support of National Geographic Society, the Christensen Fund,
the Whitley Fund, and Turkey’s Directorate of Nature Conservation and
National Parks. Since October 2011, cutting edge GPS/GSM/UHF/VHF
transmitting collars have been placed on wolves that are among the most
difficult animals to be safely caught and released. These transmitters
send the GPS co ordinates of the wolves as SMS messages to our cell
phones, which means we get text messages from wolves. The data have
enabled us to calculate home ranges of wolves for the first time in
Turkey. We will also use these data to estimate wolf populations in the
region.
According to one estimate, Turkey has 7000 wolves, but this is
likely to be an overestimate. We are already finding that wolves use
much bigger areas than thought, sometimes exceeding 5000 square
kilometers. This means that there are fewer wolves in Turkey than
previously thought.
Until now, eight remote-tracking collars and three radio collars
have been placed on on wolves caught by the KuzeyDoga team in the
Sarikamis-Allahuekber Mountains National Park of Kars in eastern Turkey.
The first two collared wolves were named “Kuzey” and “Doga”. The
transmitters on the collars use a SIM card to regularly send their GPS
coordinates as SMS messages to KuzeyDoga’s scientists by using cell
phone network coverage.
The transmitters have the latest GPS/GSM/UHF/VHF
technology, obviating the need for satellite transmitters. The wolves
can be tracked “near real-time” with the detailed data obtained from the
transmitters. If needed, the transmitters can send the locations of the
wolves as SMS messages every hour. If there is no cell phone coverage,
the wolves can be tracked with “old-school” VHF antenna and receiver and
the data can be downloaded from up to a kilometer away using a UFH or
VHF downloading unit. The collars are programmed to fall exactly one
year after capture.
One major aim of the project is reducing human-wolf conflict
We have been carrying out wildlife research, nature conservation
and ecological research projects in eastern Anatolia since 2001. I have
focused on the rich biodiversity of northeastern Turkey in 2003 and
established KuzeyDoga Society in 2007. As top predators that control
prey populations and also prey on livestock, wolves are very important
parts of Anatolian ecosystems. Turkey’s first wolf tracking project is
studing the movements and home ranges of these wolves, their habitat use
in different seasons throughout the year, th eir behavior and prey
base, and how the wolves interact with humans and livestock. With these
critical data, collected for the first time in Turkey, we also hope to
reduce the ever-present human-wolf conflict in the region. One of the
world’s top wolf specialists, Professor Dr. Josip Kusak from the
University of Zagreb Department of Veterinary Science came to Kars and
worked together with the KuzeyDoga team since 2011.
Our team spent five
full weeks in the field and succeeded in capturing wolves that fall, not
the best season for catching wolves. In addition to, capturing,
collaring, and tracking wolves, we also documented footprints, scat
samples and other signs of wolves in the national park.
The
preparation for this very detailed and labor-intensive project took
over two years, the last four months of which were very busy with the
purchase, preparation, and practice of the highly specialized equipment
needed to catch and collar the wolves. The first two wolves were
captured safely on October 7 and October 11 2011, fitted with
transmitters and released in excellent health.
Since then, each wolf has
walked more than 2000 km, covering every corner of
Sarikamis-Allahuekber Mountains National Park, and spending much of
their time outside the park boundaries in deforested areas. Because of
the small size (230 km2) of this national park, its
inadequacy for the wide-ranging carnivores (wolves, bears, and lynx)
found there and for the long-term viability of their populations, in
2008 I proposed to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (now
Forestry and Hydraulic Works) to create Turkey’s first wildlife
corridor, in order to connect this isolated national park to the
extensive forests of Posof, Georgia, Black Sea and Caucasus mountains.
Following the request of Turkey’s Minister of Forestry and Hydraulic
Works Dr Veysel Eroglu, in spring 2011, officials from the Directorate
of Reforestation and Erosion Control and the KuzeyDoga team together
prepared a detailed map of Turkey’s first wildlife corridor. In May
2011, KuzeyDoga team and ministry officials spent two weeks in the
field, checking and ground-truthing the corridor route in the provinces
of Erzurum, Kars, Ardahan, and Artvin. The tracking data from the wolves
firmly convinced the ministry that this forest is too small and has to
be connected to the bigger forests of the Black Sea and Caucasus in the
north. After seeing the first wolf home range maps, the ministry signed a
Memorandum of Understanding with KuzeyDoga in December 2011 and
announced Turkey’s first wildlife corridor
in June 2012.
By tracking wolves daily, the habitat use, home range
size and movement data we are collecting are critical for improving the
scientific foundation of Turkey’s first wildlife corridor and will shape
its creation.
