Lesson about wolves in Ciechow

Lesson about wolves in Ciechow

Education is one of the most important pillars of the SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund’s species conservation strategy. With environmental education, we can act effectively and protect nature in the long term. For this reason, we work with schools to familiarize students with the biology and ecology of wolves.

This week, Roman Gula from the SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund team conducted three lessons on wolves at the Primary School in Ciechow. Our audience – pupils aged 6 to 14 – asked many interesting questions. The participants wanted to find out, among others:

– do wolves howl at the moon?

– can we raise wolves?

– is there an alpha individual among wolves?

We are glad that young people are demonstrating interest in these fascinating predators. We hope that their enthusiasm will create a more open society towards the increasing number of wolves in Polish forests.

Magda Strzała


What do we know about the wolf Bartek and his new family?

15. June 2021|In Wolf protection, Wolf Bartek

What do we know about the wolf Bartek and his new family?

About 2 weeks after birth, Bartek’s pups were relocated to another place, about 1 km away from the first habitat. We suspect that the nearby forestry operations carried out at a distance of about 200 m disturbed the wolf family. Now, the 6-week-old pups are in a new place, where, in addition to milk, they are already eating solid food – meat – brought by their parents.

The SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund team visited a place abandoned by Bartek and his family. It turned out that Bartek and his fiancée did not dig the den but used places under the fallen tree – they enlarged it a bit and lined it with punk wood. In total, there were 4 such places in an area of 100 m2. Artur Milanowski found wolf hair in the lairs, which confirms that the lairs were used by Bartek’s family.

Magda Strzała


Scyzor - next wolf with a telemetry collar from the Świętokrzyska Primeval Forest

10. June 2021In Wolf protection, Wolf Scyzor

Scyzor - next wolf with a telemetry collar from the Świętokrzyska Primeval Forest

On May 24, a team of biologists from the SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund caught the third wolf. This time it is a 2-year-old male. He weighed 34 kg and was in good shape. The wolf has a small malocclusion, and that is why we named him Scyzor. We provided the wolf with a collar with a GPS/GSM locator and a radio transmitter. After few days, Scyzor joined his family in the Świętokrzyska Forest. Telemetry locations indicate that Scyzor actively participates in raising the pups of this family.

Text: Roman Gula and Artur Milanowski, Photos: Jacek Major


Busy Bartek

13. May 2021|In Wolf protection, Wolf Bartek

Busy Bartek

In the note from February 14, we wrote that Bartek found a partner and that this she-wolf is in heat. Now we know that this couple has pups. Bartek – the sole ‘provider’ of the family – changed the way he moves within his territory. He returns to the den where the she-wolf gave birth to pups in order to bring her food. His locations create a distinctive, star-like pattern, with the den in its center. Bartek is now facing a busy season. Soon he will have to provide food not only to the she-wolf but also to the growing pups. We observed a similar case of a male who started a new family several years ago using telemetry in the Bieszczady Mountains. Andro’s family – that was the wolf’s name – had 5 wolves after the first year and 9 after three years. Thanks to this, Andro had a lot less work in the following years. You can follow the details of Andro’s efforts in our publication in the Journal of Ethology . We hope that this time we will also be able to obtain good information on the mechanisms of the formation of new wolf families.

Roman Gula


Winter tracking of wolves in the Świętokrzyskie region

12. April 2021|In Wolf protection, Wolf monitoring

Winter tracking of wolves in the Świętokrzyskie region

The snow conditions last winter were favorable for wolf tracking. The five-people team of the SAVE Fund conducted tracking in 11 forest complexes. We also obtained information from the forest districts of Radom RDLP and Świętokrzyski National Park. As every year, we assumed that the number of wolves in a given forest complex is equal to the largest group of wolves that we were able to record during tracking or with the help of photo traps. This is, therefore, a conservative estimate because the wolf family does not always wander together.
We counted 55 wolves in the whole monitored area. As in the previous years, we recorded the largest families consisting of at least 8 wolves in the Świętokrzyska Forest and the Iłżecka Forest. Good snow conditions allowed us to determine that the family’s territory from the Czarna Konecka valley also includes the nearby Kołomańskie Hills. In 5 families, we established the presence of females during heat, thanks to the characteristic bloodstains they left on the snow. You can follow the details of the counting results on the map.


Attack on farm animals in Wola Łagowska

Attack on farm animals in Wola Łagowska

On March 30, 2021, we received information from the Łagów Forest District about a potential wolves’ attack on farm animals (fallow deer and mouflons) in Wola Łagowska. On the same day, in the afternoon, together with Artur Milanowski, we inspected the scene and interviewed the farm owners. The traces that we found on the spot and the inspection of the killed animals clearly indicate wolves. The farm where the animals are kept was built solidly with a high mesh with an energizer; however, in a way that was completely not protecting against the attack of wolves. When building the farm, the owners did not consider the attack of wolves because such attacks had not happened in the area thus far. We provided them with advice on modifying the fences so that wolves cannot get inside the pen and how to monitor the fence. They decided to implement them immediately.
It is the first documented case of a wolf attack on farm animals in the Świętokrzyskie region. As pasture farming is rare in this area of wolf presence, we do not expect damage to livestock to be a significant problem in the region in the future. The largest number of wolves’ attacks on farm animals in our country is recorded in Podkarpacie, Małopolska and Warmia and Mazury. The total value of claims on a national scale is approximately PLN 1.2 million.

Roman Gula


Wolf in a photo trap

Parents from the Ilzecka Forest

11. March 2021|In Wolf protection

Parents from the Ilzecka Forest

This year’s winter allowed me to quite accurately count the wolves in the Ilzecka Forest. I wrote about the tracking results in my notes on 10th and 15th February. Wolves also recorded in photo-traps as many as 11 times, and they were in groups of 2 to 6 individuals. Looking carefully at these recordings, I was convinced that I recognized the female (time 5s, 15s, 31s, 1 min 19s, 2 min 3s and 2 min 08s). Another wolf that I believe I recognize in several sequences (time 1s, 15s, 31s, 50s, 1min 17s, 1min 3s, 2min 1s, 2min 13s) looks like a large male. In the last recording from the night of March 4, there was a couple, and I think these are those two wolves. Near where I recorded them, I also found urine marking of two wolves and traces of heat (blood). So it seems to me that this recorded couple is the parent pair that will be breeding this year.

Jacek Major


The next wolf died on the road

2. March 2021|In Wolf protection

The next wolf died on the road

Wolves in the Augustów Primeval Forest change the ranges of their territories. Last year’s winter was stinting on snow, so tracking became impossible. We assessed the distribution and numbers of our wolves based on information only from direct observations, tracks in the sand and the mud, and recordings from photo-traps; thus, the situation was not fully clear. This year, winter turned out to be favorable, and we managed to track all wolf families many times. As the season is not over, we do not have the complete results yet. However, we did note some news. The most interesting fact is that wolves inhabited the areas located in the immediate vicinity of Augustów. Single individuals have been seen near the city for several years, but these were rather rare situations. Currently, these areas are regularly patrolled and marked by a pack of six individuals. Permanent crossing routes and marking places are located just a few hundred meters from the urban development. Unfortunately, it is an area crossed by roads and a railway line. Last week, one of the wolves died in a collision with a car, on the Augustów-Sejny road (road no. 16), near the Silkaty settlement. In a straight line, the wolf was 400 meters away from the apartment block.

Joanna Harmuszkiewicz


Wolf in a photo trap

Wolf's Way

15. February 2021|In Wolf monitoring, Wolf protection

Wolf's way

As I wrote in the note from February 10, after the snowfall, I managed to track 8 wolves in the Iłżecka Forest. During this tracking, I found signs of heat in one of the females. From January 24 to February 8, I also managed to record the wolves from this family six times in a photo trap set up by a forest road. They passed in front of the lens in various numbers. Most wolves appeared on the video on February 6. There were six of them, and it seems to me that the parent couple was among them.

Jacek Major


WoolfBartek area

Wolf Valentine's Day

14. February 2021|In Wolf protection, Wolf Bartek

Wolf Valentine's Day

Bartek, the wolf that we caught and provided with a telemetry collar at the end of November last year, settled in the Niekłańsko-Bliżyńskie forests. For some time, Bartek’s tracks have been accompanied by the tracks of another wolf. This morning we set off once again to check if Bartek has any company – as we suspected, the company of a she-wolf. The last bearings from the GPS receiver installed in Bartek’s collar were from yesterday (February 13) at 2 pm. Just in case, we took the antenna and radio receiver to be able to track Bartek. Unfortunately, snow fell during the night, which made it difficult to find fresh tracks. We did not manage to hear Bartek’s radio signal; supposedly he has moved to another place in his territory. Trufla, my dog, helped us. She found yesterday’s buried tracks and the urine marking site. Those were the traces and marking of two wolves! The sensitive nose of 18-year-old Trufla also sensed something else. Blood, left by – now we were sure – Bartek’s partner. Therefore, it turned out that Bartek, after leaving his family in the Świętokrzyska Forest and penetrating the area of about 1000 km2, found a fiancée. Moreover, the blood indicates that the she-wolf is in heat. So there is a chance that Bartek and his fiancée will have offspring!

Text: Roman Gula, Photo reportage: Jacek Major