Culling wolves a pack mentality

WORLD Wildlife Fund president for Spain, King Juan Carlos, was ‘outed’ early last year for hunting elephants in Botswana.

King Gustav of Sweden, another WWF patron, blotted his conservation copybook by calling for wolves to be killed. Both monarchs’ realms are in the dock for their treatment of wolves, but a Swedish court has intervened.

Pilgrims trudging to Compostella, under the merciless Spanish sun, please note; there’s a paradise of jagged peaks, stunning vistas and corrie lakes, just south of the road from Santander to Orviedo. The Picos de Europa offered weary mariners, returning to Spain during the age of exploration, their first glimpse of Europe, hence the name. Water, cascading from 2,500 metre-high summits, has cut awe-inspiring canyons, clefts and ravines in Burren-like limestone. Oak beech and chestnut forests cloak the lower slopes. The range has deep caves and Picu Urriellu offers the most famous climb in Spain. This hiker’s paradise has chamois, bears, wild boar, black woodpeckers and eagles. There are six wolf packs in the region; 30 to 55 animals. Farmers complain that cows, sheep and goats are taken by wolves. In 2009, they claimed to have lost 73 animals to the predators. Poison is laid illegally and wolves are shot (“I thought it was a dog” being the standard excuse). Compensating farmers is a burden on cash-strapped local authorities, so a cull of wolves is organised each year. It’s illegal to hunt in Spain’s first national park, but when culling the law is ignored.