Poland is considered one of the wildest countries in the European Union, full of natural habitats where wolves, brown bears and European bison roam widely and live in harmony with humans. A keen observer, however, will discover that Poland is actually a very densely populated country, with only 1/3 of its area covered by forest, which often resembles a pine plantation rather than a primeval forest. Wolves that started recolonizing the country a few decades ago most likely had the same impression. Nevertheless, since the last eradication efforts in 1970s, they increased their numbers in Poland by 20-fold and are now present in all larger forested areas. The key to this success seems to be the amazing behavioral flexibility of the wolf rather than our conservation efforts.
The Wolf Conservation Center hosted Dr. Katarzyna Bojarska on Wednesday, July 26, 2023 at 5 pm ET for a webinar discussing some of the challenges that Polish wolves face during their every-day lives that involve hunting wild prey, raising their young and dispersal, in landscapes dominated by not-always-friendly humans.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Katarzyna Bojarska is a biologist working at Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, and at Göttingen University in Germany. She studies the behavioral ecology of large carnivores and their prey. Her favorite subject are wolves and their behavioral adaptations to living in in human-dominated landscapes.
