The Crimean wolf is a predator with a very varied diet. Wolf in Crimea (currently) Black wolves in Crimea
I remember my geography lessons at school well. Mid-nineties, the teacher says that there are no wolves in Crimea, the last animal was killed in 1922 at the foot of Mount Chatyr Dag. His head, as an artifact, was then kept for a long time in the community of hunters and fishermen. After the Great Patriotic War, wolves returned to Crimea, but were then exterminated again. In 1972, the last wolf was spotted. Now the situation is different. They are back. The first reports of the appearance of a wolf on Karabi-yayla date back to 2000, and its appearance in the steppe Crimea was known earlier. Presumably, during cold winters, predators migrated across the ice from the Kherson region. Here are quite old materials from the Crimean media. year 2012. Three residents of the village of Pyatikhatka (Krasnogvardeisky district) were bitten by a wolf that wandered from the forest belt. Two men were bitten on their arms and legs, and a woman was bitten on her forearms. Even earlier message: 2007. Pervomaisky district of Crimea. The wolf attacked the guard of one of the farms. The man fought off the wolf with a stick and jumped into the building, closing the door behind him. The incident did not end there. The predator ran around the building and attacked an elderly woman. Fortunately, the huntsman arrived in time and shot the wolf. Both victims, a man and an elderly woman, were taken to Pervomaisk hospital. They had lacerations to the face, forehead and forearms. Last winter in Crimea was cold, and also hungry for wild animals. The wolves became more active. In January of this year in the village. Bogatoye, Belogorsk district, wolves killed 49 goats, in the village. Novoaleksandrovka 30 rams. After this, the authorities began to conduct regular raids to shoot predators, but the results were modest: in February and March in the Belogorsk region, one wolf was wounded and one she-wolf was killed. These animals lead a nomadic lifestyle; they do not have a permanent habitat. Wolves are here today, there tomorrow. Therefore, it is difficult to regulate their population. Hunting for them does not lead to the desired result. Wolves in Crimea are subject to shooting in accordance with established limits. In 2016, 163 individuals were allowed to be destroyed. This is, of course, not the entire population, but only part of it. The largest limits were received by Belogorsky, Kirovsky, Leninsky and Razdolnensky districts. As an example, consider the Razdolnensky district. He received permission to shoot 16 wolves. For comparison, I will say that before this, in the period of 6 years from 2008 to 2014, 12 wolves were killed in this part of Crimea. And now it is allowed to liquidate 16 in one year. The habitat of predators in this part of the Crimea is the Samarchik river, rice paddies, a forest near the village of Ryleevka, as well as quarries for the extraction of shell rock. I will provide information from KerchNetTV. Last year in February, a lone wolf attacked a flock of sheep. The presence of a man - the shepherd Igor Sorochinsky - did not bother him at all. A brave Kerchanin, in order to protect his herd, entered into battle with a predator. The fight lasted for half an hour. As a result, the wolf was killed, but the shepherd also suffered. The beast bit his fingers. In March, alarming news came from the Saki region. Wolves attacked a flock of sheep. The shepherds managed to fight back, and the hunters shot one of the predators. What is characteristic is that there are no forests in the Saki region. The wolves lived in an old abandoned quarry. According to the old-timers, this is the first time in their memory. This information was reported on his Facebook page by Roman Samoshkin, a resident of Yevpatoria. And here is a video from 2015 from Alushta. It appeared on the YouTube channel of the publication Your Newspaper. This is Oktyabrskaya Street, the city center. A beautiful and friendly she-wolf, not at all aggressive in appearance, came out to people and was captured on a phone camera. Fortunately, she did not perform any threatening actions. Wolves have also been spotted in the Sevastopol area. Their attacks on livestock were recorded in several settlements adjacent to the city. In particular, in the villages of Kholmovka and Verkhnesadovoe, they slaughtered 5 sheep. As I already said, presumably, wolves came to Crimea from Ukraine on ice during frosts. But there is another version regarding their origin. It was voiced by the chief management specialist...
I remember my geography lessons at school well. Mid-nineties, the teacher says that there are no wolves in Crimea, the last animal was killed in 1922 at the foot of Mount Chatyr Dag. His head, as an artifact, was then kept for a long time in the community of hunters and fishermen. After the Great Patriotic War, wolves returned to Crimea, but were then exterminated again. In 1972, the last wolf was spotted. Now the situation is different. They are back. The first reports of the appearance of a wolf on Karabi-yayla date back to 2000, and its appearance in the steppe Crimea was known earlier. Presumably, during cold winters, predators migrated across the ice from the Kherson region.
Here are quite old materials from the Crimean media. year 2012. Three residents of the village of Pyatikhatka (Krasnogvardeisky district) were bitten by a wolf that wandered from the forest belt. Two men were bitten on their arms and legs, and a woman was bitten on her forearms. Even earlier message: 2007. Pervomaisky district of Crimea. The wolf attacked the guard of one of the farms. The man fought off the wolf with a stick and jumped into the building, closing the door behind him. The incident did not end there. The predator ran around the building and attacked an elderly woman. Fortunately, the huntsman arrived in time and shot the wolf. Both victims, a man and an elderly woman, were taken to Pervomaisk hospital. They had lacerations to the face, forehead and forearms.
Last winter in Crimea was cold, and also hungry for wild animals. The wolves became more active. In January of this year in the village. Bogatoye, Belogorsk district, wolves killed 49 goats, in the village. Novoaleksandrovka 30 rams. After this, the authorities began to conduct regular raids to shoot predators, but the results were modest: in February and March in the Belogorsk region, one wolf was wounded and one she-wolf was killed. These animals lead a nomadic lifestyle; they do not have a permanent habitat. Wolves are here today, there tomorrow. Therefore, it is difficult to regulate their population. Hunting for them does not lead to the desired result.
Wolves in Crimea are subject to shooting in accordance with established limits. In 2016, 163 individuals were allowed to be destroyed. This is, of course, not the entire population, but only part of it. The largest limits were received by Belogorsky, Kirovsky, Leninsky and Razdolnensky districts. As an example, consider the Razdolnensky district. He received permission to shoot 16 wolves. For comparison, I will say that before this, in the period of 6 years from 2008 to 2014, 12 wolves were killed in this part of Crimea. And now it is allowed to liquidate 16 in one year. The habitat of predators in this part of the Crimea is the Samarchik river, rice paddies, a forest near the village of Ryleevka, as well as quarries for the extraction of shell rock.
I will provide information from KerchNetTV. Last year in February, a lone wolf attacked a flock of sheep. The presence of a man - the shepherd Igor Sorochinsky - did not bother him at all. A brave Kerchanin, in order to protect his herd, entered into battle with a predator. The fight lasted for half an hour. As a result, the wolf was killed, but the shepherd also suffered. The beast bit his fingers.
In March, alarming news came from the Saki region. Wolves attacked a flock of sheep. The shepherds managed to fight back, and the hunters shot one of the predators. What is characteristic is that there are no forests in the Saki region. The wolves lived in an old abandoned quarry. According to the old-timers, this is the first time in their memory. This information was reported on his Facebook page by a resident of Yevpatoria, Roman Samoshkin.
And here is a video from 2015 from Alushta. It appeared on the YouTube channel of the publication Your Newspaper. This is Oktyabrskaya Street, the city center. A beautiful and friendly she-wolf, not at all aggressive in appearance, came out to people and was captured on a phone camera. Fortunately, she did not perform any threatening actions.
Wolves have also been spotted in the Sevastopol area. Their attacks on livestock were recorded in several settlements adjacent to the city. In particular, in the villages of Kholmovka and Verkhnesadovoye they slaughtered 5 sheep. As I already said, presumably, wolves came to Crimea from Ukraine on ice during frosts. But there is another version regarding their origin. It was voiced by the chief specialist of the forestry and hunting department of Sevastopol Stanislav Tushev. “One of the hunted wolves has broken teeth, although the animal is young. This happens when a wolf gnaws on a steel partition or lattice in a cage.” Thus, among the Crimean wolves there may be those who previously lived in captivity under human supervision, and then escaped from the enclosure to freedom.
Recently, residents of the Bakhchisarai region complained about the threat from wolves and asked to intensify measures to shoot them. If wolves appear in your area, do the same: immediately report to the authorities. This will help protect farm livestock from attack.
The Crimean Peninsula is quite small in size, with a very diverse fauna, many birds and insects. Crimea could never boast of the presence of large predators, with the exception of brown bears and wolves. Bears were exterminated in the Crimean forests during the reign of the Crimean Khans, when they destroyed forest areas, cutting down valuable trees for heating, resin, and construction. At the same time, some of the largest predators in Crimea were destroyed. Wolves lasted a little longer in Crimea.
Very little is known about these animals. Scientists who conducted their research in Crimea noted wolves in their works, but their notes often did not exceed a few lines. When scientists decided to study the predators in more detail, they had already disappeared from the peninsula. The very first mentions of wolves are found in the book by K.I. Gablitzl “Physical description of the Tauride region according to its location and all three kingdoms of nature,” which was published in 1785.
A little more about animals can be found in the works of Nikolsky and Puzanov, who described the cunning and cruelty of the predator, but, unfortunately, paid little attention to specific scientific facts. When they began to study the Crimean wolf in more detail, only unverified, brief notes about its habits, habitats, and character remained about it.
According to the descriptions of the scientist Gablitzl, the Crimean wolf was smaller in stature than its northern counterpart. Nikolsky also noted this feature. S.A. Mokrzhetsky even assumed that the Crimean wolf is a subspecies or even a separate species of wolf, due to its distinctive size and some other characteristics. V.Kh.Kondaraki also noticed extreme strength and excellent fur in terms of the color and strength of the hair.
By nature, the wolf is a forest dweller; in Crimea, the predator was often seen in the steppe regions. The Crimean wolf was distributed throughout the mountain forest, Foothills, and often appeared in the vicinity of the Arabat Spit, Tarkhankut. The reports of one scientist describe a case when, 3 miles from Simferopol, a raid on wolves was carried out, and 8 animals were raised. However, the lack of shelters and sources of fresh water made the steppe Crimea unsuitable for the habitat of formidable predators, so they chose mountainous areas as their permanent place of residence.
The Feodosia and Simferopol regions were most populated by predators; there were also a lot of them in the Chatyrdag gorges, where flocks of thousands of sheep grazed. The Feodosia outskirts, by the way, are the place where wolves survived the longest. Most Crimean wolves appeared at the end of the 19th century, when a large-scale war against predators began. In the 90s In the 19th century, the number of wolves decreased greatly. By the 20s. In the 20th century, Crimean wolves could only be found in the Feodosia forestry. The last wolf was encountered on the peninsula in 1972, after which no visits of the predator to Crimea were reported.
Crimean Republican Museum of Local Lore.
Crimean wolf. Canis Lupes Linn. An extinct species.
- a predator with a very varied diet. The animals ate small rodents, hares, deer, and wild goats. They did not disdain carrion, robbed the ground nests of birds, and caught fish in shallow waters. Sometimes wolves were even seen in the melon fields near Salgir, where they feasted on watermelons. Residents of all regions of Crimea suffered a lot of harm from wolves; these animals hunted livestock, made their way straight into barns, exterminated calves and foals, and hunted hounds. Therefore, raids were announced on wolves, bonuses were given for killing animals, and hunters were encouraged.
The wolf population is growing in Crimea. Local residents fear that the predators will cause serious damage to agriculture - they are already attacking livestock in the Belogorsk region. In the village of Bogatoye they killed about 50 goats. Local residents claim that the authorities are inactive, but they claim the opposite.
Despite the shootings, the wolf population in Crimea has increased by 53 individuals over the past year, the Russian Ministry of Ecology of Crimea reported.
Earlier, Rospotrebnadzor noted that in Crimea there are cases of rabies infection, the main sources of infection for humans are foxes, raccoon dogs and wolves.
Former Minister of Forestry of Crimea, ex-chairman of the Republican Committee for Forestry and Hunting of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Anatoly Kovalsky believes that wolves are being destroyed ineffectively in Crimea, unlike mainland Ukraine.
– Wolves entered Crimea from the Kherson region back in 2012 and began to breed. At first they were only in Krasnoperekopsk, Armyansk, Dzhankoy - and gradually moved to the south. By 2014, wolves could be seen near Bakhchisarai.
They attack only domestic animals; there is a danger to humans only if the predator is very hungry. Previously, the population was regulated through permitted shooting during the hunting season. As far as I know, there are currently no organized associations of hunters in Crimea, the lands are drying up, that is, territories are being freed up for wolves. But this is a natural process, predators have their own role in nature.
Former forester of Primorsky forestry Dmitry Demchuk I am convinced that the Russian authorities in Crimea have brought the situation to a catastrophic level.
We are witnessing a natural disaster - wolves are literally walking through villages
Dmitry Demchuk
– Before 2004, there were practically no wolves in Crimea. Then there were severe frosts, the Dnieper estuaries froze, and the predators moved to the peninsula. It is true that they are forest nurses, but it is only true for uninhabited areas: taiga, tundra, and so on. Crimea is a closed territory, and if there are more than 300 wolves there, as local experts say, then we are witnessing a natural disaster. Based on the area and resources of the peninsula, the normal population is 50 wolves, no more. It turns out that local authorities have left everything to chance: there are no specialists, no planned shootings are carried out. The most serious problems now are in the Leninsky district and in the steppe zone in general - there wolves literally walk through the villages. The death of wild boar in Crimea occurs due to inbreeding; there is no influx of fresh blood, since Crimea is a territory surrounded on all sides by water. In addition, poaching officials kill game in the Crimea - that’s what the wolves don’t have enough of.
Chairman of the Presidium of the Ukrainian Society of Hunters and Fishermen, Honored Forester of Ukraine Nikolay Shulyar doubts that there are so many wolves in Crimea, but assumes that no one shoots them.
If wolves are not shot, they will become dangerous to people
Nikolay Shulyar
– It seems to me that the declared number of wolves in Crimea is overestimated, because in Crimea there are no conditions for several hundred such predators. Most likely, there are no more than a hundred of them there. Wolves are very flexible, they always look for where there is more food, where there are suitable weather conditions, and migrate there. So if hunters do not shoot them, their numbers will naturally increase, they will become dangerous to people, and rabies will begin to spread. Our society is engaged in this shooting on the mainland of Ukraine, but in Crimea, apparently, conditions are now different.
(Text version of the material was prepared by Vladislav Lentsev)