Wolf Conservation and Management in Spain, An Open Debate

Ordiz, Andrés; Canestrari, Daniela; Echegaray, Jorge

doi:10.3389/fenvs.2022.781169

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 39 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The Iberian wolf subspecies Canis lupus signatus historically declined in range to reach a minimum distribution range during the second half of the 20th century (Petrucci-Fonseca, 1990;Rico & Torrente, 2000). In Portugal, wolf decline is still ongoing (Torres & Fonseca, 2016), while in Spain the species seems to have remained in rather a stable state since the 1980s, both in terms of the number of packs and range extent (Ordiz, Canestrari, & Echegaray, 2022). Here, we use wildlife records from the mid-19th century to estimate the historical area of wolf occupancy in Spain as a baseline to assess the conservation status of the species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Where wolves were: setting historical baselines for wolf recovery in Spain

Clavero

García-Reyes

Fernández-Gil

et al. 2022

Animal Conservation

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Reference conditions are necessary to assess the conservation status of species, understand their declines, and manage their recovery. Historical documents offer large amounts of records of a wide variety of species, which may be used to generate reference baselines on the historical distribution range of species. We collected information on the Iberian wolf Canis lupus signatus presence or assumed absence for 6734 localities in Spain from the geographical dictionary edited by Pascual Madoz in the mid‐19th century. We used probabilistic distribution models to estimate the wolf historical range with unprecedented detail, allowing the quantification of the historical reduction in occupancy area. Wolf records were widely distributed in mid‐19th century Spain, being present in all its mainland provinces. The probability of occurrence was positively associated with landscape roughness and negatively with human population density and the landscape suitability for agriculture. The area estimated to be occupied by wolves ranged between 212 200 and 317 600 km2, depending on the approach used to set cut‐off values from the predictions. Our estimations represented an average range reduction of 68% between the mid‐19th century and present time, resulting in the current restriction of the species to the country's north‐western quadrant. The putative recent recovery of the wolf in Spain consists mainly of the accumulation of wolf records in areas where the species had persisted and the recolonization of some peripheral areas, but there is no indication of widespread recovery of the historical distribution range. We show that the compilation of historical species records allows producing baseline range scenarios with much higher resolution than usually available to inform species status and set recovery targets, an approach that can be implemented in other areas and taxa.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Where wolves were: setting historical baselines for wolf recovery in Spain

Clavero

García-Reyes

Fernández-Gil

et al. 2022

Animal Conservation

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Fine scale structure or fragmentation of the population can put it at increased risk of inbreeding at local scales caused by subpopulation fluctuations. Wolf population management in Spain depends on regional autonomous governments, and the five regional administrations that include the wolf range have been putting in place disparate management strategies ( Quevedo et al 2019 ; Ordiz et al 2022 ). Also, within an autonomous region, strategies could geographically vary (for example in Castilla y León, north and south of Douro river).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large variance in inbreeding within the Iberian wolf population

Salado,

Preick,

Lupiáñez-Corpas

et al. 2023

Journal of Heredity

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The gray wolf (Canis lupus) population on the Iberian Peninsula was the largest in western and central Europe during most of the 20th century, with its size apparently never under a few hundred individuals. After partial legal protection in the 1970s in Spain, the northwest Iberian population increased to about 300-350 packs and then stabilized. In contrast to many current European wolf populations, which have been connected through gene flow, the Iberian wolf population has been isolated for decades. Here we measured changes on genomic diversity and inbreeding through the last decades in a geographic context. We find that the level of genomic diversity in Iberian wolves is low compared to other Eurasian wolf populations. Despite population expansion in the last 50 years, some modern wolves had very high inbreeding, especially in the recently recolonized and historical edge areas. These individuals contrast with others with low inbreeding within the same population. The high variance in inbreeding despite population expansion seems associated with small-scale fragmentation of the range that is revealed by the genetic similarity between modern and historical samples from close localities despite being separated by decades, remaining differentiated from other individuals that are just over 100 km away, a small distance for a species with great dispersal capacity inhabiting a continuous range. This illustrates that, despite its demographically stable condition, the population would probably benefit from favoring connectivity within the population as well as genetic exchange with other European wolf populations to avoid excessive fragmentation and local inbreeding depression.

show abstract

“…Clavero et al (2022) propose that the often assumed Spanish wolf recovery is an artefact resulting from a "shifted baseline syndrome" (Soga & Gaston, 2018). The species might be expanding in some areas due to small-scale recolonization events, but without significant changes in total population numbers, since the estimated number of wolf packs have remained relatively constant in the last decades (Ordiz et al, 2022). Interpreting such small changes as a recovery hides the large-scale decline (on average, 70% according to our estimations) from the 19 th century situation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%