After bears, wolves became a problem for the residents of Vrancea. The residents of Soveja have recently been facing increasingly frequent attacks by them in their households. After several animals, including guard dogs, were killed, mayor Ionuț Filimon calls for measures, reports Agerpres.
“Unfortunately, we are facing such situations and not from today, from yesterday. We have had the problem for some time. Initially, I thought they were isolated attacks, but unfortunately, things started to escalate. We have citizens who complained that their dogs were torn apart. It was thought that they were jackals, but then they were seen by people within the radius of the town. Maybe they are in transit, we don’t know. If things have settled down with regards to bears, and we haven’t had any problems lately, now we see that wolves are also descending more and more often into inhabited areas. People are scared. It’s not very pleasant to know that wolves are in the yard and that even the guard dog can no longer protect you”, declared the mayor Ionuţ Filimon.
He posted an “SOS” message on Facebook.
The authorities will urgently meet with the representatives of the Forestry Ring that manages the hunting fund in the area and will analyze the measures that can be taken to avoid a tragedy.
“Today we will have an emergency meeting with those from Ocolul Silvic who manage the hunting fund within the radius of the commune, to see what measures can be taken. I’m curious, since the last assessment, how many wolf specimens are on this hunting ground. Such phenomena should not exist and should not come under our jurisdiction, but only the owner of the hunting grounds. But, inevitably, things happen, and we have to consider people’s safety first and foremost”, was Filimon’s opinion.
According to the representatives of the Vrancea Forestry Department, there have been no official notifications regarding the presence of wolves in the area.
“We are the administrators of the hunting fund at Soveja, but in the past we have not had official notifications regarding wolf attacks in Soveja. Unofficially, I have also heard that there have been incursions of wolves through various households. They usually go after food and attack animals. But I don’t know that the number of specimens has increased”, said the head of the Vrancea Forestry Directorate, Lucian Zanfir.
However, about two years ago, wolf packs far above average were reported in the Soveja area.
“Two years ago, we caught on the surveillance cameras packs a little bigger than the media face we knew. There were around 13-14 wolves, which is quite a lot. The average in previous years was about seven wolves per pack. Then, I associated this increase in the number of specimens with outbreaks of swine fever. There were many boar corpses in the forest. And the jackal population grew during that period. We don’t know what the situation is at this moment, because we no longer have monitoring cameras in the area”, said George Bourăş, specialist in the Association for the Conservation of Biological Diversity.
Starting from the spring of this year, the commune of Soveja faced dozens of incursions by bears in the locality, they reached the hearth of the village, where they destroyed fences and killed several animals. With winter approaching, people say wolves could become a problem and fear for their safety.
Editor : M.I.
