The forest complex located to the north-east of Iłża is part of the Marcule Forest District, but is surrounded by arable fields and is separated from the Iłżecka Backwoods. In June, we received information from the chairman of the hunting club, Waldemar Gieraziński, that one of the hunters was observing three pups with a she-wolf in this area. On July 10 in the evening, I howled for the first time (Jacek Major) in this area, but I was unable to receive the wolves’ response. However, I found quite a lot of traces of their presence – scats and tracks. On July 27, we re-inspected this area. During the tour through forest roads, we found tracks and scats of wolves and a wolf’s den that was used this year. It was situated on the edge of a largely untraveled forest road, the edges of which were covered with hazel. In spring, the entrance to the den was covered with a large hazel bush and was hardly visible even from a short distance. We were able to spot it while driving an off-road vehicle only because some time ago (about 2 weeks), the hazel was cut with a machine for cutting bushes along the ditches. After finding the den, we were more optimistic about the chances of getting a response to the howl we planned in the evening. Driving around the roads, we found a lot of scats. Their number was especially large on one of the asphalt forest roads crossing the complex. At sunset, around 8 pm, we howled right from this spot. We received the answer from the whole wolf family. 3 pups and at least 4 adult wolves howled!
We obtained information from foresters from this area (Michałów and Podrzecze forestry) that wolves appeared in this area already around 10 years ago. Initially, these were occasional observations, but in recent years they have been seen more and more often.

Jacek Major and Roman Gula