The incident happened about a month ago. A hunter was training two of his hounds in a hilly area of Trentino. The younger one, having suddenly wandered off, fell victim to an attack by some wild animals that evidently frequented that part of the territory. The dying dog was found by the man with six or seven wolves around it, apparently disturbed during the fight. Phone calls, rescuers, forest rangers and many journalists alarmed by the event. "Wolves are ferocious, they kill dogs and, if not stopped, can even attack humans." Or, at least, so they say.

The author has lived for twenty years with Czechoslovakian wolfdogs, the man-made breed closest to the wolf. It is precisely this familiarity that has helped me get to know the wolf and its behaviour a little better — perhaps, because in nature doubt is an obligation. Wolf behaviour is always and in every case guided by flight, circumspection and wariness. How else could this animal have survived the human onslaught for centuries upon centuries, remaining the undisputed master of the natural habitat in which it lives and thrives? But what is its relationship with its direct descendant, the dog, which so resembles and imitates it in attitudes, ways and expressions, despite having been shaped over the years by the influences imposed by humans? Let us try to shed some light on the subject.

Wolves and dogs, an unbreakable bond

As I write, I read that a wolf pack has been spotted on the outskirts of Turin. Fear? Panic? What will happen if the Great Predator comes down into the urban area and encounters dogs and humans? In reality, the role of wolves in nature is indispensable. "The wolf sits at the top of the food chain as a super-predator. In this role, these animals keep prey populations in check not only numerically but, above all, in terms of quality, preying predominantly on young, sick or injured individuals. Members of the species, together with other mammals and birds, also play an important role as scavengers, feeding on carcasses and limiting the spread of disease," explains Mauro Belardi, biologist and president of the cooperative Eliante. That is what happens in nature. And in that realm the wolf should be left alone — something now very difficult given the continuous expansion of human activity and encroachment into territories that have been its own for centuries. And what about dogs, then?

"When we talk about wolves and their coexistence with humans and domestic animals, we often come across news that is amplified and distorted by the media and social networks. We frequently read about these animals being reintroduced and about constant attacks on humans, dogs and other domestic animals, which turn out in most cases to be outright fake news. Around the wolf and its world there exists a very broad aura of legend and disinformation, which leads people to construct an image of this animal that is distorted from reality," explains Margherita Carretti, ethologist and naturalist at Selvatiche Armonie.

Indeed, even in the story recounted at the beginning of this article, there is not much to be alarmed about. A dog, having escaped its human, finds itself in territory that is not its own. It is young, inexperienced, and does not know how to respond to the attack of a pack busy defending its own territory. Whether that pack was made up of wolves, feral dogs, or other local animals becomes irrelevant. Wolves and dogs behave in exactly the same way when faced with an invasion of the place where they live. They could not do otherwise, because the intrusion of outsiders into the habitat is genuinely dangerous. Not to mention that wolves and dogs are directly connected and interdependent species, and bonds of coexistence and affection between them are far from rare.

Barry Lopez recounts in his splendid book Lupi – dalla parte del miglior nemico dell'uomo (a volume I warmly recommend to everyone who wants to learn more about the Great Predator and the nature that surrounds it) the story of a large grey wolf — the so-called American grey wolf — that adopted a submissive, deferential attitude in the presence of its friend the dog, a cairn terrier weighing a mere three and a half kilograms. And how many times, Lopez recalls, have wolves been accused of attacks on farms and henhouses when the real culprits were feral dogs or even domestic ones that had slipped their owners' supervision. Such is the power of an atavistic bond that unites wolves and dogs in a continuum stretching across the centuries.

The wolf and its return

The progressive encroachment of humans into the wolf's natural territories continues unabated. "The return of the wolf across much of the Italian territory began naturally in the early 1970s, thanks to conservation laws that banned hunting, the establishment of new protected areas and socioeconomic changes that led to a gradual abandonment of mountain zones by humans, in favour of a repopulation by wild animals," notes Margherita Carretti. "Today, a major joint effort is under way between the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Ispra, voluntary associations and sector professionals, to monitor and census the wolf population present on our territory. Another objective is to inform and educate people who live in areas where the wolf is present, or who go hiking in these territories, about strategies and behaviours compatible with its coexistence."

The absence of this large carnivore from our forests for a generation or so has caused humans to lose the natural awareness and caution needed for safe coexistence with a predator at the apex of the food chain. For this reason, the documented real attacks on humans or domestic animals often stem from incorrect behaviour, or a lapse of attention, on the part of people. Underlying everything there is always the same factor: a wrong attitude — perhaps an unconscious one — on the part of humans and, of course, of the dogs that accompany them.

The bold woman who considers herself an animal lover and walks along hillside paths with two dogs by her side has no idea that she is intruding on alien territory whose guardians and masters might make her pay dearly for the intrusion. To a wolf and its pack, a dog is nothing more than an invader, a foreign element to be subdued and eliminated. Yet when an attack occurs, the blame never falls on those who invade but on those who are invaded — who are demonised and vilified, hunted and exterminated.

The wolf is an opportunistic and highly intelligent animal: when it spots an easy source of food, it takes advantage of it, adapts to the environmental conditions it finds and feeds on the most abundant species, selecting the most vulnerable individuals. In natural systems, predators play the important role of regulators, bringing balance to the ecosystem and adjusting the number of prey to match the resources of that territory.

"Attacks on domestic animals such as dogs are not generally frequent, but they are documented both in Italy and in all other areas where this predator is present. There are essentially three types of situation in which predation on dogs occurs: when dogs are allowed to wander away from their owner in territories where wolves are present; when they are kept on a chain or left unattended outside dwellings, especially at night, in spaces accessible to wolves; and when guard animals protecting livestock are carrying out their work. We do know, however, that the diet of the Great Predator in Italy consists mainly of wild animals, so predation on domestic animals is infrequent.

The wolf naturally avoids humans and the places where they live, but should it find available resources — such as unattended domestic animals or food and feed left outdoors — it may be attracted and draw closer. It can happen that dispersing individuals, young wolves that have left their family of origin, approach domestic animals more readily than adult members of established packs; even in these cases, what makes the difference is human behaviour and the prevention strategies put in place," adds Dr Carretti.

Beware of the dog!

Just as I was writing this editorial, a post appeared on Facebook from the Parco nazionale di Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise warning that some trails are closed to dogs. Of the park's 153 official routes, 88 itineraries may be walked with a dog, provided it is kept strictly on a lead. On 13 August 2020, a disciplinary code for tourist use was indeed adopted, which in practice rationalised, organised and updated all the park's regulations concerning sporting and tourist activities within the protected area. I summarise below its most important paragraphs.

A dog, like a cow, a cat or a sheep, is a domestic animal. When passing through a natural environment, far from cities, one enters a context that is home to wild animals — naturally elusive and wary of human beings, some of them endangered. However difficult this may be for many people to accept, the dog is no longer part of nature, of ecosystems or of the balance that governs them. Its presence in areas of high natural value must be considered alien, "potentially harmful" and therefore something to be managed and regulated, just like that of the human beings alongside whom it has long lived, having abandoned wild life. A predominantly "wild" natural area, if inhabited by species that harbour an age-old terror of the dog, is incompatible with their presence. The reasons why dogs are not permitted on 65 trails are as follows:

• Dogs may escape their owner's control, chase and prey on wildlife, and even kill animals of small and medium size. For this reason, wherever dogs are permitted they must always be kept on a lead, as the law reaffirms.
• A dog, even when under its owner's control, always leaves traces of its passage: hairs, excrement, scents and territorial markings can influence the behaviour of wild animals, consequently causing physiological and biological harm.
• In the event of a direct encounter with a wild animal, the mere sight of a dog (recognised by them as an antagonist or a predator) can cause stress or unexpected reactions on the part of the wild animals.
• Wild animals that are disturbed — especially chamois, red deer and roe deer, or more commonly small mammals and birds whose presence we do not always notice — may abandon their young, become separated from the herd and leave their resting or feeding areas, with their biological cycle consequently disrupted.
• The solid and liquid excrement left by dogs, as well as acting as a vehicle for the transmission of diseases, signals the presence of danger to many wild species, because they recognise such traces as those of a predator (in the case of prey animals) or an intruder (in the case of the wolf). This creates stress and disturbance in the populations present.
• Our dogs can be vectors of many parasitic and infectious diseases that are dangerous to wildlife, and can introduce or acquire from the wild environment new disease agents against which the immune systems of wild animals have no effective response. Unlike domestic animals, wild animals cannot receive the necessary care or prevention for all the diseases that affect them. Dogs can transmit highly contagious diseases: distemper, leptospirosis, mange, intestinal parasitoses and echinococcosis.

There are therefore no universal recipes for promoting peaceful coexistence between dogs, wolves, wild animals and their natural habitat. Adequate protection solutions must be studied and planned in relation to the environmental context. And, ultimately, only a more intimate knowledge of the nature that surrounds us and its laws can help establish peaceful coexistence between different species — and perhaps enable humanity and what surrounds it to live in harmony.