This year’s winter was almost completely snowless, and the weather was more like fall than winter. Due to the lack of snow cover, there were no conditions for tracking. Despite this, we have repeatedly recorded the presence of wolves because of tracks in the mud, scats, found prey, howls and video recordings from photo-traps placed in the field. From the beginning of November till the end of March, we managed to track down a group of 4 individuals (tracks in the mud), photo-traps recorded from 1 to 8 wolves, and 4-5 individuals responded to voice stimulation. Therefore, it can be assumed that the wolf family inhabiting the Daleszyckie Forests had at least 8 wolves in winter. We also monitored the area around the breeding sites from previous seasons as well as the known rendez-vous site. In this location, we managed to find a large number of scats, dozen or so preys, single tracks, urine markings, and we have repeatedly registered wolves using photo-traps. We also received information from the Łagów Forest District employees about the presence of wolves in the forests east of Raków, which may indicate the presence of another wolf family in that area.

Tomasz Bracik, Jacek Major and Łukasz Tomasik