Scientific exchange for a successful research and sustainable species protection

About 100 natural scientists, foresters and wolf enthusiasts from all over Poland participated last Friday in the Wolf Conference organised by SAVE together with the Regional Directorate of State Forests in Radom in the Polish Forest Education Centre of Jedlnia-Letnisko.

Scientific topics such as wolf biology and ecology, monitoring methods, genetic research and wolf nutrition were discussed as well as practical issues, e.g. wolf damage in the Podkarpacie region and how to avoid conflicts between European wildlife and humans. In the contribution “Should we be afraid of a wolf?” by Roman Gula, the conference participants learned more about how the negative wolf image actually came about, in Europe but also beyond.

With the help of photos and monitoring recordings, they got to know wolf families from the Augustów primeval forest and the Oder valley. There were personal reports of encounters with wolves and other forest dwellers, as well as a special surprise from the Poznań region, where two wolves of one family gave birth almost simultaneously in the Zielonka primeval forest.

We would like to thank our cooperation partner RDLP Radom for their active support in the organisation. A special thank you also to the many committed speakers who enriched the exchange at this conference with their expertise and personal reports: Katarzyna Bojarska (Institute for Nature Protection PAN), Jacek Koba (Regional Directorate of State Forests in Radom), Piotr Portnicki (Museum and Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences), Hubert Fedyń (RDOŚ Rzeszów), Tomasz Figarski and Bartosz Piwowarski (Naturalists’ Association Ostoja), Joanna Harmuszkiewicz (Forestry Administration Augustów), Katarzyna Kozyra-Zyskowska (Naturalist’s Work) and

Marta Gawrysiak, who carries out wolf monitoring in Zielonka Forest, and of course Roman Gula (Museum and Institute of Zoology PAS), Tomasz Bracik, Jacek Major, Artur Milanowski and Joanna Toczydłowska from the SAVE team in Poland.