Slavc

Slavc (pronounced [ˈslawts], diminutive of Slavko[2][3]) is a male wolf whose migration was being electronically tracked by the University of Ljubljana's Biology department between July 2011 and August 2012, through usage of a GPS-GSM wildlife collar. The wolf was being tracked as part of an EU-project named SloWolf.[2] His location was transmitted every three hours.[4][1]

Slavc
SpeciesCanis lupus
SexMale
Born2009[1]
Slovenia
volkovi.si

Slavc was born as part of the wolf pack named Slavnik.[5] The wolf pack Slavnik inhabits the area roughly from Trieste in Italy, through Hrpelje-Kozina in Slovenia up to the Učka mountain range in Croatia.[6][7]

In July 2011, he was collared by the biologist Hubert Potočnik.[4] Slavc had stayed with his pack until December of the same year. His dispersal from the pack had started on 19 December 2011.[8] At the beginning of his journey he initially headed southwards, towards Ćićarija. He then headed northwards where he traversed Vipava Valley, Trnova forest, went through Ljubljana Basin and reached the vicinity of Klagenfurt within 10 days.[8]

The data transmitted by his collar suggests that Slavc had swum across the Drava river at a location where the river is 280 metres (920 ft) wide with no bridges nearby. Some of the mountain passes the wolf crossed were at elevations of 2,600 metres (8,500 ft) and with snow covers that were 6 metres (20 ft) deep.[4]

By March 2012 Slavc had arrived in the Valpolicella, part of Verona province in Italy. His sighting was the first sighting of a wolf in the wild in Verona in more than 130 years.[3] He then moved back north towards the Lessinia Regional Nature Park. Park managers had given word to Slovene biologists about tracks of two canids that they had found there. The wolf had met a female mate there, nicknamed Juliet.[4]

Slavc's collar was programmed to drop off automatically in August 2012. Slavc is assumed to be still in Lessinia where he had two pups with his mate. Latest information indicates that the pair had another litter in 2014.[4]

The journey has seen Slavc travel for around 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) in total.[4]

See also

References
  1. SloWolf. "Identifying details of wolves equipped with telemetry collars". Archived from the original on 2014-08-12. Retrieved 10 Aug 2014.
  2. "Volk Slavko že na Salzburškem". ORF (broadcaster). Retrieved 10 Aug 2014.
  3. Welt der Tiere - Wolfsliebe (in German). Bayerischer Rundfunk. Retrieved 10 Aug 2014.
  4. Nicholls, Henry. "Incredible journey: one wolf's migration across Europe". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 Aug 2014.
  5. SloWolf. "Območje gibanja tropa Slavnik" (in Slovenian). Retrieved 10 Aug 2014.
  6. "Izvješće o stanju populacije vuka u Hrvatskoj u 2012. godini" (PDF) (in Croatian). State Institute for Nature Protection (Croatia). p. 16. Retrieved 10 Aug 2014.
  7. Krofel, Miha. Living with wolves: Miha Krofel at TEDxLjubljana. TEDx Talks. Retrieved 11 Aug 2014.
  8. SloWolf. "Volk Slavc se je ločil od rodnega tropa" (in Slovenian). Retrieved 10 Aug 2014.
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