In late 2023, the Slovenian Forest Service initiated the implementation of the LECA project activities, which also involve monitoring wolves with telemetry. In November, a six-month-old male pup from the Nanos-Hrušica pack was captured in one of the traps set in the prealpine area (Hrušica). Working alongside experts from the Biotechnical Faculty, veterinarians from ZOO Ljubljana, and local hunters, the team successfully outfitted the first wolf with a telemetry collar. The hunters named the wolf Jakob, in memory of local hunter Požar Jakob, who had left a lasting impression on them in their youth. The collar placed on the young wolf has already transmitted information about its movements, providing us with a more detailed insight into the life and behavior of the local wolf pack. These findings will also be compared with data from the Czech Republic, collected by Mendel University in Brno.
Today, conflicts between large carnivores and humans persist as bears, wolves, and lynxes return to our natural landscapes. The key hashtag of our project is #COOPERATION. One of the primary aims of the project is to foster essential collaboration among stakeholders such as foresters, hunters, and farmers. We collar wolves not only to gather valuable information about the movement and activity of these endangered animals but also to mitigate conflicts between wolves and livestock breeders. To achieve this, we are testing the effectiveness of preventive measures on model farms using innovative methods such as combining wolf GPS telemetry, deploying GPS collars with cameras and proximity sensors on shepherd dogs or livestock, and implementing virtual fences around pastures.