After we created the Program for monitoring 6 species of importance in 2025, we continued our work in that field. Through the project „Wolf Monitoring in Bosnia and Herzegovina“, which is supported by the German foundation EuroNatur and the Swiss foundation Bernd Ties, we managed to organize wolf monitoring in 4 pilot areas: Foča – NP “Sutjeska”, Teslić – Borja, Kotor Varoš – Kruševo Brdo and Istočni Drvar – Klekovača.
After completing the monitoring activity, we organized an expert discussion and lecture at the Faculty of Science and Mathematics in Banja Luka, where professor Dragana Šnjegot presented an analysis of the results obtained from test monitoring for the wolf. Insights from the field part of the work were shared with us during data collection by Željko Sekulić.
The event was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage, lecturers from the Faculty of Science, i.e. the host institution, representatives of hunting ground users, both from the RS and from FBiH. After presenting the results in an open discussion, those present pointed out the advantages, disadvantages, i.e. difficulties in the implementation of the monitoring protocol.
What we wanted to encourage with our activities are the first steps towards establishing monitoring of the condition, in this case, of the wolf – with the aim of its long-term survival as an umbrella species – extremely important for a healthy biodiversity and a complete ecosystem.
Many insights indicate that the wolf population, although apparently constantly present and stable, is under pressures – primarily anthropogenic: lack of peace in the habitat, construction of infrastructure (roads, settlements, tourist centers, exploitation of forest and mineral raw materials). Climate changes have also created prerequisites for the spread of jackals, with which the wolf now shares certain habitats, and thus living space and prey. Our test monitoring has given us clear evidence of the presence of the wolf in selected areas, but the trends in its presence, abundance and movement still remain a relative unknown for domestic science and the profession. We hope that our efforts will contribute to valid knowledge about the condition of the wolf and the possibilities for its long-term protection and preservation.
Another important segment is the support for coexistence with the wolf is the donation of electric fences for livestock, which plays a role in reducing damage to livestock and thus indirectly preventing a revolt among the population towards the wolf population. This year, we donated 4 electric fences that were placed in the municipalities: Kupres RS, Vareš, Travnik, that is, in the areas of permanent wolf presence: Kupreško polje, Zvijezda mountain and Vlašić mountain. We got to know the public about all the activities through the creation of a promo video – with the aim of raising public awareness of the importance of wolf research and its preservation as an umbrella species, but also of measures that help sustainable coexistence that the population of our country has inherited for centuries. With the decrease in the number of rural population and livestock, the pressures on the remaining herders are greater than before, so these measures are related.