If we are going to talk about tracking wolves, I feel I should clarify a most important concept
in wolf ecology – the concept of the ‘pack’ – a widely misunderstood term. Age old stories
tend to make these out to be bands of menacing individuals, with a strict hierarchy and an
aggressive alpha male as their leader. But in fact, the pack, which is the central unit of wolf
society, is just another term for a wolf family group: a mother and father, and their kids. The
father is the alpha male, the mother is the alpha female, and together they share responsi-
bility for their family. All other wolves in a group are descendants of this pair, either their
young from this or previous years. Only occasionally are there cousins or unrelated wolves
attached.
Moreover, there is another little known characteristic of wolf family groups. Namely, that
once a wolf pair establish their territory in a given location, it is likely to be their home for
life, with no outsider wolves allowed in. The beauty of these living arrangements is that con-
tinual monitoring of one forest area allows us to follow the intimate life history events of a
single wolf family over time: the birth of their pups, their rearing, and then their later mi-
gration to far away lands. So to illustrate this point – when a wolf family settled in Kampinos
Forest last year for the first time in 50 years, we immediately began tracking it. We noted
them having a litter of pups last year, and then again this year. In this way it’s really possible
to get intimate and attached to a local wolf family, as they provide us with stories over the
course of several years.
So to finish up this article I’ll tell you short story that we recently took part in: the touching
story of a young wolf from the Kampinos National Park wolf pack. The story highlights some
of the dangers wolves experience living in such proximity to humans, but ultimately has a
positive ending J
So back in April this year, a young two year old wolf named Kampinos (after his forest of
origin) got caught up in a hit and run car accident near Leszno, a town on the outskirts of
Kampinos Forest, not far from Warsaw.
He was left laying at the roadside, till some time later he was found. Thankfully the national
park authorities and vets were called, who contacted the NGO my colleague R.W Mysłajek
co-runs – the Association for Nature ‘Wolf’.
The team brought him to the Warsaw city wildlife rehabilitation centre, where he was
swiftly diagnosed with a broken pelvis and damaged liver. It was a nervous time: his blood
analysis results didn’t bode well and wolves rarely recover from such traumatic injuries. De-
spite this poor prognosis, the expert vets deftly operated on him anyway; they had to give it
their best shot. Thus Kampinos’ pelvic bone was stabilised, after which began a wait to see
how his recovery would bode.