At four in the morning the alarm goes off, a wolf has ended up in the trap. The team goes into action to equip the Sirio wolf with a satellite radio collar. They are not hunters but wildlife technicians, experts, foresters, video makers. For a year they will follow Sirio and his family to learn all the secrets of these animals through an experimental “proactive telemetry” project of the Veneto Region and the University of Sassari, also putting into practice new systems to avoid predation on farms. From this monitoring was born the documentary “Lupo Uno”, Rai prize at the Trento Film Festival, which will be screened on Saturday 4 May at 4pm in the Montetini auditorium in via Cesalpino in Arezzo on the initiative of the scientific committee of the Italian Alpine Club of Arezzo and with the interventions by Duccio Berzi, who participated in the research documented by the film, and Luca Mattioli, responsible for Arezzo for the Tuscany Region’s wildlife activities, both wildlife technical experts and members of the Tuscany Region’s Wolf Task Force.
The film is part of a two-day event dedicated to the wolf which includes the exhibition on large carnivores promoted by the national CAI on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th May from 10am to 7pm in the main atrium of the Province of Arezzo, ideally connected to the exhibition on wildlife of the Province open for the occasion, with inauguration on Saturday at 11. In nineteen exhibition panels the CAI wants to give correct information on the large carnivores also called “silent presences”: the social organization, the movements, the predations, the herds, the hybridization, extinction and return, and how to behave in case of encounters. The CAI volunteers, the representatives of the association The Wild Side and the students of Itis Galileo Galilei will act as guides.
“The challenge – admits Luca Mattioli, responsible for Arezzo for wildlife activities in the Tuscany region – is to resolve the conflict between zootechnics, good practices and prevention, a conflict that has been created with the expansion of the wolf and the consequent fear on the part of the population which sends continuous reports. Our task is to photograph reality, focus on the problems, promote coexistence, suggest rules of behavior, avoid the rift between those who love it and those who hate it, open a debate with citizens. Information is fundamental in a densely populated environment like the province of Arezzo”.
“Until now we had no data on the movements of the wolf in the Alps – explains Duccio Berzi, coordinator of the telemetry project – it was the first organized scientific experience and now we are working to do it in the Apennines. Knowing how much territory the wolf occupies helps us understand the population density and make correct predictions about how it impacts the environment. The radio collar, however, has allowed us to develop protection systems for farms. An exportable project. Now we are seeing cases of confident animals approaching homes. A new topic to address given that the latest wolf management plan is stuck in 2015. Risks for people? We have never seen wolf attacks on humans. It’s easier to get bitten by a dog.”
