ABUNDANCE
There are different biological stages within a wolf population. The Swiss wolf concept (DE, FR, IT) defines them as follows:
Pack: A group of three or more wolves living in a common home range or at least one mature wolf with one or more wolf pups living in a common territory. A pack is a social unit that eventually reproduces, catches prey together, and marks their home range together. Years without reproduction are possible.
Pair: A female and a male wolf that have marked their territory together for at least three months or more, hunt and roam together and have no offspring. The occupation of a territory is not mandatory, but possible.
Resident lone wolf: A single wolf that has lived in an area for six months or more. Short-term evidence of other transient lone wolves without a social bond between the animals within the territory is possible.
Transient lone wolf: A solitary wolf that lives in an area for less than six months, is not site-loyal and does not form social bonds with resident wolves (e.g. a dispersing animal). Evidence of short-term stays in the territory of other lone wolves, pairs or packs is possible.
SWITZERLAND
After their eradication, wolves have started recolonising Switzerland in 1996. With only a few exceptions, all wolves in Switzerland originated from the Italian and Alpine populations. This can be determined based on the unique genetic haplotype HW22 only found in these populations. Due to the large mobility of wolves, we expect wolves from other populations to immigrate to Switzerland. The first pack was established in 2012 in the Calanda area, in the canton of Grisons.
Development of wolf packs and pairs in the Alps
Evolution of the number of wolf packs and pairs in the Alps. F = France (blue), IT = Italy (green), CH = Switzerland (light red), SLO = Slovenia (purple), TR = transboundary (yellow), TR? = probably transboundary (yellow hatched). The Wolf Alpine Group does not have the data from Italy for the years 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. Consequently, they were unable to present the complete data.
EUROPE
In 2022, an assessment of the wolf in Europe was carried out by the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe (LCIE) for the Council of Europe. A total population of 21,500 animals was estimated. The distribution of the estimated number of individuals among the different populations is shown in the table below.
Population | Countries | Estimate1 | Trend |
Scandinavian | NOR, SWE | approx. 550 | Increasing |
Karelien | FIN | approx. 290 | Stable or increasing |
Baltic | EST, LTU, LVA, POL | approx. 2490 | Stable |
Central European | DEU, POL, CZE, AUT, NLD, LUX, BEL, DNK | approx. 1850 | Increasing |
Carpathian | ROU, UKR, SVK, POL, CZE, HUN, SRB | approx. 4500 | Stable |
Dinaric-Balkan | SVN, HRV, BIH, MNE, MKD, ALB, SRB, KOS, GRC, BGR, TUR (europ.) | 5800–6500 | Unknown |
Alps | ITA, FRA, CHE, AUT | approx. 1900 | Increasing |
Italian peninsula | ITA | approx. 2388 | Increasing |
Iberian | ESP, PRT | approx. 2550 | Stable |
Sierra Morena | ESP | 0 | Extinct |
1Based on data from 2021–2022