Italian media report that star-crossed wolves – Slavc and Juliet –
have produced another litter of cubs, the third in three years together.
Not everyone is happy.
Celebrity wolves Slavc and Juliet have produced their third litter in as many years.
I came across the story of Slavc in 2014. He was born in Slovenia but left in December 2011, crossing the Alps and ending up in Lessinia Natural Regional Park just north of Verona in Italy. Hubert Potočnik and his colleagues at the University of Ljubljana were able to track the wolf’s 2000-km migration in extraordinary detail. By April 2012, it had become clear that Slavc had hooked up with a female, Juliet.
In their first reproductive season together in 2013, Slavc and Juliet produced at least two cubs. Last year, in 2014, footage emerged that they’d added another seven cubs to the pack. This week, I was contacted by Alessandro Brugnoli, wildlife manager of the Trentino Hunters’ Association, with news that Slavc and Juliet have done it again. Here are two nice videos, one amateur, another a bit more professional showing the wolves have birthed a further seven cubs this year.
I came across the story of Slavc in 2014. He was born in Slovenia but left in December 2011, crossing the Alps and ending up in Lessinia Natural Regional Park just north of Verona in Italy. Hubert Potočnik and his colleagues at the University of Ljubljana were able to track the wolf’s 2000-km migration in extraordinary detail. By April 2012, it had become clear that Slavc had hooked up with a female, Juliet.
In their first reproductive season together in 2013, Slavc and Juliet produced at least two cubs. Last year, in 2014, footage emerged that they’d added another seven cubs to the pack. This week, I was contacted by Alessandro Brugnoli, wildlife manager of the Trentino Hunters’ Association, with news that Slavc and Juliet have done it again. Here are two nice videos, one amateur, another a bit more professional showing the wolves have birthed a further seven cubs this year.
Slavc and Juliet’s latest litter would bring the pack to at least 18 (possibly more if they had more than two cubs in 2013). Some of these, of course, might have perished. According to a press release issued by the Lessinia Natural Regional Park last week, we can be pretty confident there are currently at least 14 wolves in the region, at least 14 more than there were five years ago.
The news is being met with mixed feelings in Italy. The recovery of wolf populations across Europe is a conservation success story, one that is opening up new opportunities for wildlife tourism. But farmers are understandably concerned. The Verona-based newspaper L’Arena reports that 17 livestock have been predated by wolves in the region since the beginning of this year.
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