A series of meetings with Slovenia Forest Service damage officials

Slovenia Forest Service damage inspectors are usually the first officials to go to the field after damage events caused by large carnivores occur. They talk with farmers about the depredation and at the same time offer “first aid” in finding solutions to prevent the recurrence of attacks. Within the 2020/2021 season, we organized a series of meetings with damage officials in the area of ​​occurrence of wolves who are included in the Wolf prevention intervention units (WPIU). We discussed about the current situation in the field of large carnivore management, the challenges that farmers and local residents face on a daily basis, as well as challenges that damage officials encounter within their contacts with farmers. With damage officials who have been encountering the presence of wolves for the first time in recent years, we visited a few farms where they learned first-hand about the measures that can be used to mitigate the impact of predators.