It feels like a step back in time. When wolves attacked and often brought entire families, if not whole villages, to their knees. Losing livestock meant hunger. And so the systematic hunting of wolves became a public display of human power over wild animals.

That is what has been recorded in recent days in the Tuscan Maremma area. "We haven't witnessed such severe persecution of an emblematic species since the 1970s," declared Dante Caserta, President of WWF Italia. "These repeated acts of poaching must be condemned in every respect, and no situation, however difficult, can motivate them, let alone justify them. After spending decades on the brink of extinction, the wolf has returned to populate mountains and valleys thanks to the efforts of associations, institutions and the research community."

For this reason, WWF suggests 5 steps towards peaceful coexistence between this protected species, tourism and livestock farming.

1. PROTECTION. Encourage and adopt a widespread system of anti-predation fencing and tools capable of protecting livestock farms from unwanted intrusions that are often dangerous to the lives of animals.

2. COMPENSATION. Facilitate access to compensation for damages suffered from any attacks, by streamlining the bureaucratic process.

3. STRAY ANIMALS. Manage domestic animals appropriately, tackling the problem of strays, which can often be confused with attacks carried out by wild animals.

4. MONITORING. Create a coordinated network for the precise recording of damage in order to promote concrete interventions that enable responses to be provided to livestock farmers to mitigate harm.

5. INTRUDERS. Where confirmed, intervene to try to remove wild wolf-dog hybrids, which can pose a threat to livestock heritage and, above all, threaten the conservation of the wolf species itself.