The increase in wolf numbers in Europe and their spread westward is taken rather lightly by a writer in a French hunting magazine who claims that wolves do not attack humans, and that where they hunt down and kill deer of various kinds, they are in fact disposing of the sick, injured and old, or those which fall behind in the chase. Further, he relates how Indians in Arizona who breed sheep in great numbers protect their flocks from coyotes by impregnating their wool with "a very popular condiment manufactured in the southern United States: Tabasco."
If the coyotes won't touch such sheep, even those which are not guarded, probably the same would go for wolves, he thinks. "Tabasco", the label on a small bottle on the desk this minute states, "is the registered trademark for the pepper sauce originated by E. McIlhenny before 1868 and manufactured by his family ever since." Wasn't it one of the McIlhennys who donated to this country the magnificent Glenveagh National Park in the Donegal mountains? But back to the writer in the Chasseur Francais. He adds that if the wolf becomes a nuisance it will just add another specimen for the hunter to exercise his skills on.
In fact, wolves are protected under the Bern Convention of 1982. Nearly all European countries have signed up, according to Time magazine, which has a write-up on the situation in Europe today. Not only have wolves come into France from Italy - the most-publicised invasion of all - but they have come from the east into Poland and eastern Germany, the latter, according to this account, wolf-free since the 19th-century.
The Bern Convention does allow for culling and some countries have even removed the wolf from protected species category. But there is no doubt that they are on the increase. One organisation which covers 17 countries - the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe - estimates that 3,885 live in Western Europe, and up to 8,435 in Eastern Europe, though the World Wild Fund for Nature believes that the total for Europe could be as high as 15,500 to 18,000. Many sheep deaths put down to wolves may, in fact, be due to dogs which, like wolves, may not kill completely before they eat. A horrible death for the sheep, but then the journey to the abattoir is hard to contemplate.
One man has a solution of a sort: he believes the wolves should be transported to areas which do not have sheep, and then used to attract tourists. It's already happening in Italy in a national park in northern Tuscany where "wolf weekends" are run, telling visitors about the animals and bringing them around to look for tracks and such. Y