Movement of a wolf Jelko after leaving his natal pack

After Jelko left his natal pack Jelovica in April 2021, he found his territory about 70 km northeast of the Slovenian-Italian border. During the last eight months, the wolf has been present in a wider area of Resia region, from the Slovenian-Italian border to the Tilment River, spending most of his time on the ridges of the local mountains at an altitude of more than 1200 meters above sea level.

He has also made a few individual trips outside his current home range. Immediately after arriving in the area, he first tried to cross the Tilment, but the high water level was probably too great an obstacle. In May, he explored the area to the south, but turned around near the suburbs of Udine and returned to the primary area. Until the end of September, he was mainly in Italy, and from October onwards, occasionally in the area of Kobariški Stol. There, we detected signs of predation on extremely inaccessible terrain and managed to record some of them. We also collected a number of non-invasive samples and, based on the different sizes of the scats, we estimated that there was probably at least one wolf in addition to Jelko. The wolf now moves mainly throughout his home range, as plotted on the map.