After centuries of persecution, the Iberian wolf population has been on the rise in recent times. However, campaigners fear much of the good work could be undone following a vote from the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention in December, 2024 to weaken protection for the grey wolf, downgrading its status in Europe from ‘strictly protected’ to ‘protected’.
The European Action Wolves coalition stated: “This irresponsible decision ignores scientific evidence and paves the way for more culling, more threats, and more destruction.”
They say the wolf is ‘essential to our ecosystems and biodiversity’.
The coalition has challenged the downlisting at the General Court of the European Union, seeking an annulment.
A total of 693 scientists have spoken out, ‘denouncing a decision driven by politics, not science’, says European Action Wolves.
How did the wolf make a comeback in Spain?
Like Spain’s other iconic mammals, the Iberian brown bear and Iberian lynx, the wolf had a very difficult time in the 20th century.
With conservationism in its infancy and mankind seemingly at war with the natural world, the wolf population plummeted.
Numbers in the middle of the 19th century were estimated at between 7,000 and 9,000, with the species inhabiting an area of around 440,000km2.
However, a policy of extermination from the beginning of the 1900s hit the wolf hard. Bounties were placed on their heads by local authorities. They were hunted, caught in traps and poisoned.
It was a slow change in attitudes to this misunderstood animal which allowed a recovery. Spain’s hunting law, the Ley de Caza de España of 1970, banned the use of poison under any circumstances. And the increase in the populations of deer and other ungulates (hoofed mammals), their main prey, also helped.
A census published in 2014 estimated that there were 1,500 wolves in Iberia, which formed 300 family groups, with the population rising to 2,000 in the autumn due to new-born cubs. They inhabited 91,620km2 of the Peninsula and 90% of them were found in the regions of Castilla y León and Galicia.
Over the following decade, their numbers increased by 26%, according to a report from the NGO, Fundación Artemisan. They estimate that around 400 family groups now exist, with a maximum of 2,800 members.
Most of them live in Castilla y León and Galicia, as well as neighbouring Asturias and Cantabria. And they are ‘consolidating their presence’ in Castilla-La Mancha, La Rioja and Madrid.
Detractors point out that wolves were responsible for 8,000 attacks on livestock in 2023, meaning that €3.5 million had to be paid in compensation to farmers in Spain.
However, the WWF explains that wolves play a key role in maintaining healthy ecosystems and biodiversity. They are predators ‘at the top of the trophic pyramid of the ecosystem’.
“They regulate ungulate populations (deer, wild boars, etc) which benefits other animal and plant species,” notes the WWF.
“By selecting the most vulnerable prey, such as sick individuals, wolves can also reduce the incidence of diseases like tuberculosis and African swine fever that wild ungulates transmit to livestock.”
They can also be beneficial to local communities through tourism.
“Wolves increase wilderness attractiveness of a given natural area which in turn boosts eco-tourism in such places,” says the WWF.
They highlight that Spain has a well-established wolf-watching tourism industry.
“In 2012, a survey found that wolf-watching tourists made up 46% of overnight stays in rural areas in Sierra de la Culebra,” they note.
This mountainous area is in Zamora province; and one of the companies which offers wolf watching, Aherca, can be found at https://www.aherca.com/
Is there an Iberian wolf?
Iberian brown bears and Iberian lynx are distinct subspecies. Iberian bears, for example, are smaller than their European cousins. However, debate rages over whether the wolf in Iberia is just an ordinary common wolf, or whether it has particular characteristics that set it apart, making it an Iberian wolf.
Wolf facts
Wolf watch UK explains that hoofed animals such as deer are their principal source of food. Depending on availability, some turn to smaller prey like mice, squirrels and beavers, they note. As with domestic dogs, wolves eat grass as an intestinal scour or purgative, and also need 1-3 quarts of water per day.
“Wolves learn to prey upon the more easily obtainable species in the area,” says Wolf watch UK.
“The wolf has a high degree of adaptability to varying conditions. It seems able to learn readily, and remembers what it has learned for long periods of time.”
The wolf pack is an extended family unit, with very close bonds between pack members (approximately 4-7 members per average pack.), they note.
A pack usually consists of one dominant breeding pair, known as the alpha male and female, plus their offspring, and adult and female subordinates, sometimes siblings of the alpha pair. The omega wolf holds the lowest rank in the wolf pack, and is often harassed.
Wolf watch UK explain that the pack is one of the most cohesive social organisations in the animal kingdom, with the social rank of each individual reinforced by an elaborate display of body posture, facial expression, movement and intimidation.
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