Chasing wolves and bears in Catalonia: this is how experts track them

To find a wolf, you must learn to look at the landscape through the eyes of a wolf. Gabriel Lampreave knows this well. He has spent 25 years following the trail of this canid in Catalonia. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack: these elusive animals move across vast distances in a short time. “You have to learn to read the territory,” this rural agent explains with humility, in charge of coordinating the monitoring of the two great predators we have, the brown bear and the wolf.

“Over the years I have come to realize that there are places that these animals use more than others, natural passages, areas where they are more likely to cross,” he adds. And it is there that he searches for clues.

Today we are south of Solsona, a few kilometers after passing Pinós. The thermometer is climbing towards 40 degrees. The landscape is beautiful, soft and undulating, very arid, dotted with centuries-old farmhouses that reveal the agrarian nature of the region. It in no way resembles the setting where the collective imagination would place a wolf. To our surprise, Lampreave explains that “they are very plastic animals, capable of living everywhere, at sea level, in high mountains or in landscapes like this one”.

After carefully scrutinizing the terrain, the rural agent takes a camera trap out of his backpack and begins to walk among holm oaks, white pines and some black pines until reaching a specific point. With the help of his colleague, Emili Casals, he mounts it on the trunk of a tree. Then they camouflage it with branches and leaves. To eyes ignorant of wolf ethology, that spot does not seem to have anything special.

“In high mountains it is usually easier to catch them because there are places that are more obligatory passages, but in terrain like this it is practically impossible, because it can go anywhere,” warns Lampreave. If in a few months the camera does not capture anything, they will try again in another place. Because if there is one thing they have learned from following this canid, it is that patience is required: it took them nearly a year to be able to confirm the presence of the individual moving through this region. During this time there were doubtful observations and signs that did not allow them to be sure that there really was a wolf. Until finally, some scat provided the answer.

The genetic analysis confirmed its presence. And key to this has been the laboratory of Natàlia Sastre, a specialist in wildlife at the Veterinary Service of Molecular Genetics of theAutonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), which has developed a methodology to extract DNA from the wolf –and also from the bear– from samples of excrement, as well as hair, urine, and blood collected in the territory. "In the case of the wolf, we have been doing it since 2003, and for the bear, since 2005. We can identify the animals without having to capture them," explains Sastre.

As for the wolf, this information is especially valuable because many of the specimens that arrive in Catalonia are solitary and difficult to locate. Often the first sign is an attack on livestock, and scat samples are essential to determine if it was the culprit and which individual it is.

Furthermore, they allow for the study of their diet and provide evidence of what the animals are actually eating. "Wolves mainly eat ungulates, especially roe deer; also fallow deer, chamois, red deer, wild boar. In some samples, we have found remains of sheep," points out Lampreave.

In this identification of the two great predators, there is another animal that plays a crucial role: Trill, a playful Belgian Shepherd that runs fast to catch the twigs thrown to her by rural agent Emili Casals, from the GK9 special canine group. It was he who trained her, and today this dog is capable of discerning with precision whether an excrement belongs to a bear or a wolf. This ability allows the agents to decide in the field which samples to collect and send to Sastre's laboratory for genetic analysis. Soon another dog will join, Burri, a "pure dynamite" Springer puppy that Lampreave is finishing training.

Given the expectation and excitement of the writer about the possibility of seeing a wolf, the rural agents quickly burst our bubble: impossible. The main enemy of this carnivore is the human being, they explain to us. “We have hunted and persecuted them for centuries and they have that engraved in their DNA. They flee just from sensing us. You will not come across them on a mountain hike”. We will have to settle, then, for the images captured by the agents' trail cameras.

The return of an extinct species

The wolf running through Solsona has not been reintroduced, but has come on its own. Like the rest of the Canis lupus currently present in Catalan territory, it is also of Italian and not Iberian lineage. The first one that arrived from France was detected in Catalonia in the year 2000, after nearly a century of them being absent from the country. “A hiker in the Cadí-Moixeró park alerted us, but we could not officially confirm it until 2003 –relates Lampreave–. It was like looking for a ghost!”, he recalls.

During the first decades of the 20th century, it was hunted, killed, and poisoned. Doing so was even rewarded by the administration, which considered it a "vermin". This drastically reduced the number of specimens to the point of pushing it to extinction. Added to this process was a change in the landscape, with a decline in the species of herbivores it feeds on, mainly ungulates. "We do not know for sure when it disappeared, but from the 50s onwards it is considered that there are no longer wolves in Catalonia," points out Lampreave.

In the State, the situation was similar, although some specimens remained tucked away north of the Duero. It was thanks to the popularizer Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente that the species was classified as game in the 70s, which somewhat slowed its extermination by regulating its hunting. It also contributed to valuing this animal within the peninsular biodiversity. Even so, its hunting was not prohibited throughout the State until 2021. In Catalonia, a year later, the wolf was incorporated into the catalog of threatened native wildlife as an "endangered species".

Currently there is evidence of the presence of this mammal in the northern half of the country, although the locations where it is found vary each year. In 2024, the Rural Agents detected a male and female pair moving together. Months later, monitoring allowed confirming the first wolf litter in a century: they had three cubs in an area straddling the Alta Garrotxa and the Alt Empordà. While it remains to be seen if this pair has reproduced again, "by 2026 we would be talking about some 16 or 17 confirmed wolves in Catalonia," highlights Lampreave, for whom, as with the pieces of a puzzle, wolves are a fundamental element of nature.

"They are part of biodiversity, absolutely necessary," claims Sastre, who describes wolves as "the smartest animals on the planet." They are also exceptional controllers of herbivore populations. The closest example is France, where in the Maritime Alps region the presence of these carnivores has reduced the overabundance of ungulates. "The wolf contributes to population control directly, because they eat them; and indirectly, through the ecology of fear," points out Lampreave, who explains that "in the presence of predators, ungulates do not eat or reproduce as much," which helps to prevent populations such as wild boar from getting out of control.

Making coexistence possible

Jaume Puigpelat had never seen a wolf. Neither had his father nor his grandfather. That is why, when his family, who are livestock farmers, found the first dead sheep, it was the last hypothesis they considered. "We rather thought they had been dogs, domestic or wild, because there had been such attacks in the area before," he explains.

Later, other farmers in the area suffered attacks and in one case, excrement was found next to a dead sheep, which the rural agents sent to Sastre's laboratory. The result, positive, finally allowed them to confirm that there was a wolf.

The attacks accelerated a decision that the Puigpelat family had been considering for a long time: incorporating protection dogs, mastiffs. Advised by Lampreave, they adopted two and have also incorporated technology: they have equipped some sheep with a GPS collar that allows them to know where they are at all times and detect anomalous movements. If during the night the herd moves unexpectedly or the animals' body temperature increases, the system sends them an alert.

“Three weeks ago we suffered another attack and, even though the dogs are still puppies, they acted against the wolf and protected the sheep,” explains this farmer, who has about 800 head of cattle and considers that “the wolf is overprotected”.

“We have to settle for something we don't want, because the wolf comes into conflict with extensive livestock farming. No matter how much we are paid for the damages, nobody wants to live with the anxiety that their animals could be killed or left wounded. We need to change strategy, perhaps it should even be eliminated,” he considers. In other territories where large predators have returned, some farmers have ended up abandoning the activity, he laments.

The survival of these two species in the territory depends to a large extent on social acceptance and on ensuring coexistence between the animals and the rural world. This is precisely the goal of LoupO Coexistence, a cross-border European project coordinated from the UAB in which institutions from Catalonia, France, and Andorra participate.

The project, with a budget of nearly 2 million euros and co-financed by European FEDER funds, continues a previous program, LoupO –a play on words in French to designate the wolf and the bear–, focused mainly on the monitoring of both species. It now incorporates two new pillars: conflict prevention and coexistence with the rural world. It starts from the premise that, if the people who live in the territory perceive the presence of these animals as a threat incompatible with their activity, conservation becomes much more fragile.

“If there is no coexistence, they will disappear,” points out Sastre. “Their permanence also depends on society's ability to accept them as a part of the territory.” This UAB researcher, leading the project, puts the focus where the conflict is often concentrated: “It is very good that from the city we defend the presence of the bear and the wolf, but the rural world, which is the one that suffers the attacks, must have a voice.”

For this reason, at LoupO Coexistence, in addition to continuing to monitor the populations of these large predators using advanced genomics and AI techniques, surveys will be conducted and the opinion of the population in rural environments will be collected to understand what problems the presence of the animals generates and what should be done to facilitate coexistence. Likewise, measures will be adopted to minimize attacks on extensive livestock and beekeeping with prevention measures such as the use of guardian dogs, the training of shepherds, and new deterrent systems.

“We must reduce conflicts as much as possible and find formulas so that extensive livestock farming and large carnivores can share territory,” points out Ricard Casanovas, head of the Fauna and Flora Service of the Department of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition of the Government of Catalonia.

It is not the same, the bear

The history of the bear (Ursus arctos) differs from that of the wolf. To begin with, this iconic plantigrade of the Pyrenees never completely disappeared from the Pyrenees and its presence was reinforced with a program initiated in France in the 90s. Thus, between 1996 and 1997, three Slovenian specimens were released –two females, Ziva and Mellba, and a male, Pyros– in the French municipality of Melles, in the Haute-Garonne. Since then, the Pyrenean population has been increasing and today exceeds one hundred bears throughout the mountain range.

In the Catalan Pyrenees, 54 have been identified, many of them in the Val d'Aran. Ivan Afonso, head of Natural Environment of the General Council of Aran, recalls that the reintroduction in the 90s generated strong local opposition, especially among the livestock sector. Over time, the situation has been changing and this plantigrade has become a protected and emblematic species, and also an animal that forces human activities to adapt.

Tracking them is simpler than with the wolf. Hair traps are used, placed on trees where these animals like to rub their backs, and feces are also collected. In the case of this mammal, among the measures foreseen by LoupO Coexistence is the development of smart cameras capable of automatically identifying which animal approaches and systems that allow for accelerating the identification of specimens. The idea is for technology to help convert tracking, which is often slow and laborious, into a faster tool for making decisions.

The fact is that, although for now there are no dangerous bears in Aran, some have begun to be detected that are losing their fear of humans and approaching inhabited areas. This is why, among other reasons, the Val d'Aran is considering re-implementing geolocation systems and measures to scare away the animals. "The further away from populations the bears stay, the better. Not only to protect people and herds, but to prevent potential incidents from increasing rejection towards the species," considers Afonso, for whom this is the only way to guarantee the survival of the species: "ensuring they remain truly wild."

Afonso defends that tracking with a GPS collar, in addition to helping detect cases of non-natural mortality, as happened with the poisoning of Cachou, is also an exceptional opportunity to better understand the biology of these animals: knowing how they hibernate, how long this period lasts, and whether, with climate change, hibernation is shortening. It also allows for obtaining information about the prey they attack. All this data will be made openly available to research centers and universities so they can carry out research.

In the end, summarizes Casanovas, "we must adapt." These species and others that could arrive, such as the lynx or even the jackal, have come to stay. The beaver has already entered Catalonia from Aragon. "All are protected at the European level and we will have to adapt and learn to live with them. We must commit to coexistence. Nature moves forward, there is no turning back."