Iberian Wolf declared extinct in Andalusia, Spain, What does this mean?

The latest report of the Program of Actions for the Conservation of the Iberian Wolf in Andalusia, southern Spain states that there is no indication of the presence of wolves in Andalusia.

However, Felipe Román, a biologist and member of the Grupo Lobo Andalucía and the Association for the Conservation and Study of the Iberian Wolf (ASCEL), says that "at least since 2013, everyone knew that there are no longer wolves in Andalusia."

No breeding group since 2003

A protected species since 1986, and legally in danger of extinction in the autonomous community since 2015 despite not being listed as such, its howl had stopped being heard in the Andalusian mountains two years earlier.

Twenty years ago, in 2003, the Board launched a wolf monitoring and conservation program, but it is now that it is taken for granted that it has been definitively extinct in Andalusia. "Now it is considered virtually extinct when it had already been extinct for a long time," says Jorge Echegaray, one of the leading experts on Iberian wolves and genetic research on the species.

Sierra Morena distribution centers

In the censuses carried out 20 years ago (the first was in 2003) two distribution centers were located, both in Sierra Morena, within the provinces of Córdoba, Jaén and Seville. "Throughout these years, different graphic evidence of its existence has been taken," the Junta de Andalucía explains in its reports. In 2003, a family group made up of the dominant couple, four puppies and three subadults was even filmed.

Regarding the data on reproduction, the breeding of three family groups was verified in 2004 and 2005, of two groups in 2006, 2007 and 2008, and one in 2009 and 2010. "The decrease in breeding herds could not be such, and rather be due to the displacement of the herds”, pointed out these first follow-up censuses. However, the Andalusian population was estimated in these years in six and eight family groups that together add up to 42-56 wolves.

During the sampling, droppings and remains of ungulate jaws were collected, which have subsequently been genetically studied and analyzed to obtain more information about the biology of the species, specifically, about its diet and preferences in the selection of prey.

The data found suggest that wolf feeding does not affect the current population dynamics of these large mammals, due to the high density of prey and the extensive area occupied by each family group and the small size of the wolf population. It is estimated that with half of the animals that die by natural death, they could cover their nutritional needs in the current area of ​​distribution.

No wolves detected in Andalusia

During the course of 2020, an attempt was made to detect the presence of wolves through "control" tours: visits to properties and public forests that were previously sampled in previous phases. The result has been that " there is no indication of the presence of wolves in Andalusia", as stated in the conclusions of the census for that year that has just been published now.

The paradox arises that in 2020 a complaint was addressed for a wolf attack on cattle (Carboneros-Jaén) and a possible sighting in Andújar (Jaén). In the case of the attack, the camera traps whose visual analysis ruled out that it was wolves.

Although the extinction of the wolf in Andalusia has been published today in the wolf conservation program, the sampling carried out since 2016 by the program team already pointed out, although not with the certainty of 2020, that there was no evidence of the presence of the wolf in Andalusia. There is also no evidence of the presence of any breeding group since 2003, nor verified data of the presence of any individual since 2014.

"Given the probable recolonization of Andalusia, in the medium-long term, due to the expansion that the wolf is experiencing in the north and center of the peninsula, the Action Program will continue with the sampling work for the possible detection of the presence of the species and will give response to attacks on livestock that may occur”, says the latest report from the Junta de Andalucía.

Because right now?

For Felipe Román, the disappearance of the wolf "has been vox populi for many years, at least since 2013", when indications of its presence were pointed out with "disputable, unreliable evidence", explains the expert, a former member of Ecologistas en Acción, who has resumed work during these years on the matter of José Luis Anguita in the environmental organization and who is now working on the compilation of "how and why the wolf has disappeared" in Andalusia.

The wolf "is not formally listed as a protected or vulnerable species" despite requests "in 2015 and 2021" by Ecologists in Andalusia, recalls Román, while "the Board has kept quiet in response" at this time and Therefore, "it does not have the obligation to establish a recovery plan" for the wolf.

To denounce this inaction, Seville hosted in October 2021 the nationwide demonstration that takes place every year to demand greater protection from the wolf. The protest in the Andalusian capital tried to bring out the colours of an autonomous government that, as has been said, has not formally classified these animals as endangered, which would lead to the implementation of a recovery plan to try to bring them back to be a figure present in the Andalusian mountains.

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