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They document a wolf that traveled 1,240 kilometers between Germany and Lleida

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Barcelona, ​​February 19 (EFE).- A collaboration between German, French and Catalan laboratories has made it possible to document a wolf that has traveled 1,240 kilometers from Nordhorn (Germany), where it was born in 2020, to Vilaller, in the Alta region of Lleida. Ribagorça, in February 2023, passing through France in 2022.

As reported this Monday by the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), a participant in the project, in which a comparison of samples has been made in genetic laboratories in the three countries, this is one of the longest dispersal movements ever made in the world. world for a ‘canis lupus’.

Previously, the longest recorded straight-line distances of a gray wolf were 1,092 kilometers between Norway and Finland in 2007; 880 between Germany and Belarus in 2009, and between Switzerland and Slovakia between 2022 and 2023.

The discovery arises from the location a year ago of some feces found by the Special Canine Group (GEK9) of Rural Agents in the framework of the wolf monitoring carried out by the Operational Corps and coordinated by agent Gabriel Lampreave, together with the Government.

Specifically, the excrement of this wolf was detected on February 13, 2023 in Alta Ribagorça thanks to the use of dogs specially trained by GEK9 to identify fecal matter of large carnivores.

The genetic analysis carried out by the UAB laboratory indicated a “w1” lineage referred to the wolf population of central and eastern Europe, which was the first case of detection of this type in Spain.

The same wolf detected in Catalonia was already located on June 17, 2022, when a driver identified and sent a photograph to local authorities of a canid that was running along a road in the commune of Fleurey-Les-Faverney (Haute Saone, France ).

Since this individual carried a genetic trait that frequently occurs in Germany and adjacent areas of central and northeastern Europe, a sample was sent for cross-match analysis at the German laboratory, which revealed that the sample matched a male consisting in its genetic database.

This type of wolf is spreading across Europe thanks to legal protection that began in the late 1970s, and is known for its behavioral plasticity and long-distance dispersal capacity, which can extend for hundreds of kilometers.

Wolf populations practically disappeared from Catalonia at the beginning of the 20th century, although the first identifications began in 2003, especially in the Cadí and Ripollès areas.

Two decades later, in Catalonia there is no established breeding population of wolves, although there are isolated individuals, which are animals that come from the natural dispersal of the wolf population present in France.

Currently, there are four genetically identified wolf specimens in Catalonia – all males – and in the last five years no female has been detected, so there is no evidence of reproduction. EFE

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