Summary of winter in the forests of Daleszyk

During the period from the beginning of November 2021 to the end of March 2022, we continued monitoring the wolf family from the Daleszyce forest.

We noted numerous traces of wolf presence in the field in the form of: droppings, tracks, urine marking and remains of prey. Several times we were able to register wolves with the help of photo-traps. The biggest registered group consisted of 7 individuals. In spite of the fact that there were not many days with snow cover, we managed to track wolves in the snow several times. We tracked from 1 to 7 individuals and the maximum distance over which we could continue tracking was about 3 km.

In February, we found a rendez-vous site of 2021, where we collected a large amount of droppings. At the rendez-vous site we also found several toys of young wolves – bitten plastic bottles, cans, a plastic swimming board, fragments of thick animal bones, and bitten antlers of deer: elk and buck deer. We also found the remains of several prey, mostly roe deer, and several lairs where wolves rested.

In late February, we had the opportunity to directly observe a large male wolf that came within about 20 m of us in response to our earlier howling. The wolf did not sense, see or hear us. When it saw one of us it abruptly stopped, turned and fled in the direction from which it came.

In March there was less wolf activity around the rendez-vous. We found droppings and tracks (1 to 3 individuals), but photo traps did not register any of the predators. In the vicinity of wolf tracks we found several remains of wolf prey.

Authors: Tomasz Bracik, Mariusz Wlazło, Paweł Gola