Category: Germany 2020

The last day delivered!  Three teams collected 12 scat samples, four of which were fresh enough for genetic analysis.

So in summary, over the seven days of our community expedition, we

• walked about 250 km on foot and rode once by bike, an average of 14 km per group per day, as always on publicly accessible hiking trails as well as agricultural or forestry trails
• covered 15 cells of the pan-European 10 x 10 km grid
• identified 163 wolf scats in the field, 54 of which we collected for nutritional analysis and 7 of which were fresh enough to qualify for genetic analysis, the remaining 109 scats were too old or broken up for analysis

Scats for nutritional analysis will be sent to the University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover, Foundation and the genetic analyses will be performed at the Senckenberg Institute.

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It will be very interesting to see what “our” wolves have eaten and whether their pack composition has changed, the territories have shifted or evidence of reproduction can be gleaned from our samples.

So all in all we achieved a lot under this year’s difficult conditions of reduced time, funding and helpers due to the absence of our usual teams of international citizen scientists. But still, we were able to determine in which areas the wolves are not roaming at the moment 😉

Wolf commissioner Kenny is scheduled to investigate the remaining areas in the next few days to have a closer look where the wolves are now. Good luck, Kenny!

We would like to thank all supporters who made this community expedition possible – especially Biosphere Expeditions for the funding via their coronavirus appeal, their logistical support and equipment. We would also like to thank the wolf bureau at NLWKN, the Lower Saxony State Forests and, of course, our fellow wolf commissioners and helpers for their support. A very special thanks goes to Kenny and his Biohotel Kenners Landlust for their flexibility, accommodation and fantastic food.

We look forward to a ‘normal’ expedition in 2021.

Peter

Göhrde forest is usually a bank for fresh scats. But everything is different this year. Four teams in the forest all day Monday and we found almost nothing – just one old and one fresh scat. Local wolf commissioner Kenny was also baffled, wondering where the Göhrde could be, but then the area really is huge.

On Tuesday we met with our old friends and fellow wolf commissioners Ulrike and Volker to explore various areas in the Wendisch Evern territory. The key question in this area is whether there are offspring. A pair of wolves has been documented there for a while, but reproduction has never been proven. There, too, we were only moderately successful, despite having had four groups in the field for the day in six different areas. We found only one scat good enough for nutritional analysis. The think the core area of the wolf pair is probably on a restricted military area, which we are not allowed to enter.

So we walked over 200 km on Monday and Tuesday and only had very scarce findings to show for it.

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But Wednesday was the day. We drove to the Amt Neuhaus area on the eastern side of the river Elbe with four teams. Teams 1 and 4 were reasonably successful, team 3 found an unbelievable number of almost fifty 2-4 week old scats! However, most of them were no longer usable for nutritional analysis, as theywere too old, rotten or incomplete – so those stayed in the field. But team 2 stole the show and brought home 29 samples, some of them fresh and complete enough to run genetic analysis on. As a reward for all the kilometres we covered, we treated ourselves to ice cream!

Thursday is our last day of the community expedition. Too bad, as there is still so much to do and we’ve also had great fun together. It only goes to show how important the full international expeditions, with more people and more time, are for gathering monitoring data actively. We are doing what we can this year, given the circumstances, but are already looking forward to having a full expedition out again next year (see the dates and join us then!).

When we all met at base on Sunday, Lotte, Jana and Lea with detection dog Molly had already finished some surveys the two days before. Their study area was the Walle territory as the status of wolves there is currently unclear. They only found old wolf scats, some of which can still be used for nutritional analysis, but not for genetic studies, as they were not fresh enough.

We started our community expedition with a brief review of methodology and sampling procedures. Wolf commissioner Kenny gave us up-to-date information about the wolves in the areas to be surveyed. In short, we want to help prove that wolves are reproducing in the study areas, ideally via genetics.

After the introduction, we spent the rest of the day in the field in three groups until dinner. In the afternoon the sun burned down hard on us, so at the end of the day, everyone was very glad to have a chilled drink at our Kenners Landlust expedition base. We found some wolf scats, but it’s too early to make deductions based on those alone.

This morning a few of us went on an early morning excursion before we had breakfast with the late risers. We made no significant findings, but spent a wonderful morning in Göhrde forest. Our day today involved four teams out in the field in light drizzle. More in the next diary entry.

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Many thanks to all the generous donors who have contributed to making our community expedition possible this year. Having reached our target recently, we are now all systems go and will start at the end of this week.

We will meet with our wolf commissioner colleagues, the wolf bureau, Lotte, Lea with dog Molly, and some incorrigible scat seekers from the region. Many thanks to the wolf bureau, the Lower Saxony State Forests and our base for this year, Biohotel Kenners Landlust.

Some of us are already doing pre-expedition surveys to investigate some more distant areas before setting up our base with all participants on Sunday.

As always, we want to find wolf scats for genetic studies and nutritional analysis, and as every year, I am very intrigued about what we will find in the field. As many of you know, although much is know about wolf territories in Lower Saxony, there is also a significant lack of data and therefore understanding about wolf individuals and their reproduction in many parts of our study site. Our expedition this year, although much smaller than usual and planned due to the pandemic, aims to address this.

Wish us luck and watch this space for further updates.

Peter