We talk again about the wolf, one of the animals whose presence has marked the evolution of the human species, becoming a symbol in many cultures.
That the image of the wolf provokes dismay and fear is a fact. The feral eyes, the bared canines, the long pointed snout make of the one who has been called "the great predator" a recognised emblem of wild, primordial nature. In his essay L'uomo e i suoi simboli, the psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung groups the wolf together with the great archetypes such as the bear, the hare, the eagle… all animals — as it happens — also the objects of hunting and extermination ever since human beings invaded the secret territories of Mother Nature.
I have lived for nearly twenty years with Czechoslovakian wolfdogs, the breed closest to the wolf that has ever been selectively bred. Many things have been said about these dogs. They are said to be unreliable, ferocious, aggressive. The breed has even been placed on the list of dangerous breeds by the City of Milan, and a specific licence is required to own one. But when I see my "big pup" Merlino, a descendant of my first she-wolf dog, kissing the three-year-old son of my neighbour or letting himself be stroked and ruffled by anyone who passes in the street, I realise how truly man is the worst enemy of animals — ghetto-ising their image for his own ends, and diminishing their wealth of dignity and love.
An elusive and wary animal, the wolf shows no aggression except when capturing prey alongside its pack. And it is precisely belonging to the pack that motivates its actions and the course of its life. Mauro Belardi — biologist and president of the Eliante cooperative, which works on environmental protection and has for years been managing concrete projects to teach people how to coexist safely with wild animals — has explained its particular significance well, defining it as sitting at the top of the food chain as a super-predator. In this role, wolves 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.
Belardi also notes that the wolf plays a role in the distribution and behaviour of its prey, which tend to become less concentrated and grow more cautious and selective. One of the possible effects — positive and negative at the same time, depending on one's perspective — is that certain ungulates such as roe deer and wild boar, in order to feel safer from the predator, tend to draw closer to human settlements. However, this behaviour is identical in animals trying to escape human hunters and may remain confined within the normal dynamics of wildlife. In these cases the wolf is simply behaving like a hunter. The only difference is that its predatory instinct is directed towards survival and not towards the pursuit of a sport, as hunting can be.
Man's aggression towards the wolf takes many forms. There is the blame attributed to these animals for slaughter in farms and flocks, or for unprovoked attacks on human beings themselves. At present, however, wolves remain in good health and are growing in numbers in Italy and across Europe. The species is, in fact, fully protected under both national and European legislation.
The Habitats Directive provides only for possible derogations from the prohibition on culling, at the request of member states, in extreme cases that cannot be managed in any other way. So far in Italy the conditions for applying such derogations have never been met. One reason is that there is already, in practice, a quota of wolves killed illegally, estimated — according to the most conservative figures — at more than one hundred individuals killed every year. This is further evidence that it is a species that provokes conflict above all among rural communities. All of this is driven by predation on domestic animals, even though the latter are, more often than not, not adequately protected by man himself.
The conflict has deep cultural roots and involves debates among people "about" the wolf, as well as a series of political manipulations that exploit the figure of the elusive predator purely to win popular approval. In our country, wolves are often found dying from mange or other serious conditions. But their destruction is caused above all by cars, lorries and heavy goods vehicles, especially at night, when headlights confuse and frighten the great predator, leaving it defenceless and helpless in the face of the attack of the great monsters created by man.
Recalling a celebrated poem by Catullus — "I hate and I love. Why I do this, perhaps you ask? I do not know, but I feel it happening and I am in agony" — it is possible to summarise the centuries-long history of the man/wolf relationship. And all of this also gives rise to beautiful stories that bring a breath of hope into the world of those who love animals. One example is the story of an injured wolf, rescued and treated in Emilia-Romagna following a report by local residents. The animal was found on the edge of a road, in all likelihood having been struck by a car, and had a fractured pelvis. The wolf was transported to the Il pettirosso facility in Modena, where treatment and rehabilitation began immediately. In over twenty years, this is the first individual to have been treated in the province of Modena. A specimen fortunate in its misfortune, it will soon return to its original pack, ready to reclaim its place in the hierarchical scale of the nature that surrounds us.