Luigi Boitani, holder of the chair in Conservation Biology and Animal Ecology at the University La Sapienza in Rome, is a true authority on wolves. In the early 1970s, Boitani, together with German ethologist Erik Zimen and American "wolfologist" David Mech, carried out the first census of the wolf in the Apennines ever conducted in Italy, commissioned by the then fledgling WWF Italy.

After coming close to extinction in the 1970s, how many wolves are there in Italy today?

I'll answer with a provocation: what is the point of giving a number? Wolves will always be too many for livestock farmers and too few for conservationists. That said, the number of wolves has grown significantly thanks to a series of factors, such as national and international conservation laws, the increase in wild areas available and the consequent growth of wolves' natural prey.

How can the phenomenon of hybridisation, which is undermining the genetic purity of the Italian wolf, be combated?

In Italy it seems that dogs enjoy greater protection than wolves. To solve the problem at the root, the phenomenon of stray animals would need to be eliminated. It is also important to understand how many hybrid animals there are. Once these specimens have been identified, they must be captured and transferred to dedicated wildlife enclosures within properly equipped facilities.

In the past, wolf hunting was encouraged even in protected areas. Why did — and does — the wolf inspire so much fear?

The wolf frightens us because it is too similar to us. Just like humans, these animals occupy vast stretches of territory, live in packs with social structures, are intelligent and have an incredible capacity for adaptation.

The "wolf psychosis" appears to persist to this day — one need only think of the recent killings of animals in the Maremma or the anti-wolf ordinance issued by Verona mayor Tosi. Is peaceful coexistence between humans and wolves possible?

Peaceful coexistence is impossible; thinking of a relationship that involves no conflict is pure utopia. It is like living alongside motorways: there will always be victims, driven by ignorance of the law or by chance events. The goal to be achieved is that of coexistence — one cannot think of reserving all territory for humans, or conversely for wolves.

Why is it important to protect the wolf? What benefits does it bring to the ecosystem?

Why must it necessarily bring a benefit? The wolf also has the right to live — that consideration alone should be enough to leave it in peace, quite apart from the fact that we are talking about a protected species. Clearly, the presence of the wolf also entails ecosystem benefits: being at the top of the food chain, it keeps the chain itself in balance by regulating herbivore populations.

Wolves are often killed by livestock farmers driven to desperation by attacks on their herds and by the difficulty of obtaining state compensation. What might the solution be?

A compromise must be sought; it is impossible to think there will not be a single sheep killed by wolves in Italy. Fourteen regions have laws providing for compensation for damage caused to flocks, though many regions have "gone back on" these laws after realising the costs they entailed. There are regions that pay with great delay and insufficiently, but there are also farmers who take advantage of the situation. For their part, farmers must accept a minimum level of damage that has always existed for the past three thousand years, and adopt preventive measures such as the use of sheepdogs, for which Italy is famous throughout the world.