First wolves in Luxembourg since 1893, originating from the Alpine and Central European populations

Abstract

Considering the spread of the grey wolf (Canis lupus) in Europe over the past 30 years, Luxembourg took some measures to prepare for the return of this apex predator, including the establishment of a management plan that notably addresses the issue of wolf depredation on livestock. Here we present the results of genetic analyses of putative wolf saliva, hair and scat samples collected from or near prey carcasses between 2015 and 2020. In two cases, the wolf was confirmed via DNA analysis: in July 2017 near Garnich and in April 2020 near Niederanven, both assigned to category C1 (hard evidence). A third case was classified as C2 (confirmed observation) based on prey carcass characteristics, while genetic analysis yielded no result. These are the first confirmed records of wolves in Luxemburg since 1893. Moreover, the two C1-cases originated from the Alpine (Garnich) and Central European (Niederanven) populations. Given similar developments in the neighboring countries and regions, we conclude that the area including the Benelux countries as well as Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Northern France may well become a melting pot for wolves of the two aforementioned populations in the coming years and decades.

Population genetic structure of wolves in the northwestern Dinaric‐Balkan region

“…Nowadays, European wolves are divided into several populations (Kaczensky et al, 2013), with habitat loss, human-wildlife conflicts, hybridization with domestic dogs (C. l. familiaris), and other processes affecting the observed structure (Loxterman, 2011;Sinclair et al, 2001;Walker et al, 2002;Woodroffe & Frank, 2005). However, various changes, including the implementation of numerous management conservation programs in recent decades (Chapron et al, 2014), have allowed wolves to recolonize substantial parts of their former ranges and facilitated reconnection of previously separated populations (e.g., Louvrier et al, 2020;Nowak et al, 2016;Schley et al, 2021).…”

A human-neutral large carnivore? No patterns in the body mass of gray wolves across a gradient of anthropization

“…Provided that this heterogeneity in long-term selective pressures might have turned into a different capacity of exploiting human-dominated landscapes, the situation between Italy and other countries from Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, some of whom have indeed been colonized by individuals from the Italian peninsula (e.g., France) [27], seems to be temporally lagged, but following a rather similar trajectory. Wolves are progressively colonizing humandominated landscapes, initially with single dispersing individuals or couples [33][34][35], and then either with source-sink dynamics [36,37] and or with well-established packs [38,39] a process that in Italy has been observed 20-15 years ago. Therefore, understanding the suitability of anthropized areas for wolves in Italy, a country where wolf colonization is at a more advanced stage, could be pivotal to evaluate the extent to which the species could re-occupy its historical range in Europe and to forecast the spatial scale of future mitigation measures or zonation policies [40].…”

Human Decision-Making as a Key Factor in the Risk of Wolf–Dog Interactions during Outdoor Activities

“…In addition, wolves have also been reported in unsuitable and suboptimal habitats [ 4 , 6 ]. The newly formed Central European wolf population is now rapidly expanding westward from its core areas in western Poland and eastern Germany [ 7 ], recently reaching Denmark [ 8 ], western Germany [ 9 ], and Benelux [ 10 , 11 ]. The Carpathian wolf population is also expanding [ 12 ].…”