CONSERVATION AT THE INDIVIDUAL LEVEL: SUCCESSFUL REHABILITATION AND POST-RELEASE MONITORING OF AN ITALIAN WOLF (Canis lupus italicus) INJURED IN A CAR ACCIDENT.

This case report describes the rescue of an eight-month-old male Italian wolf (Canis lupus italicus), the victim of a car accident that caused it a pulmonary contusion, a fracture of the shaft of right femur, and a metaphyseal fracture of the left stifle. A lateral surgical approach was performed to treat the animal\u2019s multiple contusions and fractures. Afterwards the wolf was transferred to a wild animal recovery center for its rehabilitation, where it fully recovered. After 35 days in captivity the wolf was thus released into the supposed home-range of its original pack, and its movements were monitored by a GPS satellite collar. The collar worked correctly for 479 days. During that period the collar acquired a total of 1202 locations, indicating that the wolf had traveled at least 1590 km, with an average monthly distance (\ub1 SD) of 102 \ub1 40 km, exploring an overall area of about 270 km2. During the first 10 days after its release, the wolf remained in the area of its supposed native pack, whereas at about the age of 10 months the wolf began to make wide extraterritorial movements. The wolf\u2019s last localization was acquired on 13th May 2018, about 17 months after its release, at a linear distance of about 65 km from the release site. This preliminary data showed that the wolf was alive and travelled long distances after its release, and demonstrates how a multidisciplinary management approach can support the recovery and successful release into nature of a rescued wild animal belonging to a flagship species with a notable ecological role, such as the Italian wolf

Očuvanje na individualnoj razini: uspješna rehabilitacija i praćenje talijanskog vuka (Canis lupus italicus) nastradalog na prometnici nakon puštanja na slobodu

This case report describes the rescue of an eight-month-old male Italian wolf (Canis lupus italicus), the victim of a car accident that caused it a pulmonary contusion, a fracture of the shaft of right femur, and a metaphyseal fracture of the left stifle. A lateral surgical approach was performed to treat the animal’s multiple contusions and fractures. Afterwards the wolf was transferred to a wild animal recovery center for its rehabilitation, where it fully recovered. After 35 days in captivity the wolf was thus released into the supposed home-range of its original pack, and its movements were monitored by a GPS satellite collar. The collar worked correctly for 479 days. During that period the collar acquired a total of 1202 locations, indicating that the wolf had traveled at least 1590 km, with an average monthly distance (± SD) of 102 ± 40 km, exploring an overall area of about 270 km2. During the first 10 days after its release, the wolf remained in the area of its supposed native pack, whereas at about the age of 10 months the wolf began to make wide extraterritorial movements. The wolf’s last localization was acquired on 13th May 2018, about 17 months after its release, at a linear distance of about 65 km from the release site. These preliminary data showed that the wolf was alive and travelled long distances after its release, and demonstrates how a multidisciplinary management approach can support the recovery and successful release into nature of a rescued wild animal belonging to a flagship species with a notable ecological role, such as the Italian wolf.Ovaj prikaz slučaja opisuje spašavanje osmomjesečnog mužjaka talijanskog vuka (Canis lupus italicus) koji je bio žrtva naleta vozila s posljedičnim nagnječenjem pluća, prijelomom vrata desne bedrene kosti prijelomom u području metafize lijevoga koljena. Primijenjen je lateralni kirurški pristup kako bi se sanirala višestruka nagnječenja i prijelomi u životinje. Nakon toga je vuk prevezen u centar za oporavak divljih životinja gdje se potpuno oporavio. Nakon 35 dana u zatočeništvu vuk je pušten u okoliš nalik na njegov prirodni te je praćen preko GPS ogrlice. Ogrlica je ispravno radila 479 dana. Za to je vrijeme pokazala 1202 lokacije, upućujući na to da je vuk prešao 1590 km, u prosjeku mjesečno 102 ± 40 km (± SD), istražujući područje od 270 km2. Prvih 10 dana nakon oslobađanja vuk je ostao u području nalik na njegov prirodni okoliš, no u dobi od 10 mjeseci počeo je odlaziti na šire područje. Posljednja je njegova lokacija zabilježena 13. svibnja 2018., oko 17 mjeseci nakon puštanja, na zračnoj udaljenosti od oko 65 km od mjesta ispuštanja. Ovaj preliminarni podatak pokazuje da je vuk bio živ i prelazio velike udaljenosti nakon oslobađanja. Također pokazuje da multidisciplinarni pristup spašavanju može pospješiti oporavak i uspješno vraćanje u prirodu divljih životinja koje pripadaju vodećim vrstama s velikom ekološkom važnošću, kao što je talijanski vuk

A human-neutral large carnivore? No patterns in the body mass of gray wolves across a gradient of anthropization

The gray wolf (Canis lupus) expanded its distribution in Europe over the last few decades. To better understand the extent to which wolves could re-occupy their historical range, it is important to test if anthropization can affect their fitness-related traits. After having accounted for ecologically relevant confounders, we assessed how anthropization influenced i) the growth of wolves during their first year of age (n = 53), ii) sexual dimorphism between male and female adult wolves (n = 121), in a sample of individuals that had been found dead in Italy between 1999 and 2021. Wolves in anthropized areas have a smaller overall variation in their body mass, during their first year of age. Because they already have slightly higher body weight at 3–5 months, possibly due to the availability of human-derived food sources. The difference in the body weight of adult females and males slightly increases with anthropization. However, this happens because of an increase in the body mass of males only, possibly due to sex-specific differences in dispersal and/or to “dispersal phenotypes”. Anthropization in Italy does not seem to have any clear, nor large, effect on the body mass of wolves. As body mass is in turn linked to important processes, like survival and reproduction, our findings indicates that wolves could potentially re-occupy most of their historical range in Europe, as anthropized landscapes do not seem to constrain such of an important life-history trait. Wolf management could therefore be needed across vast spatial scales and in anthropized areas prone to social conflicts

Men and wolves: Anthropogenic causes are an important driver of wolf mortality in human-dominated landscapes in Italy

Over the last 40 years the gray wolf (Canis lupus) re-colonized its historical range in Italy increasing human-predator interactions. However, temporal and spatial trends in wolf mortality, including direct and indirect persecution, were never summarized. This study aims to fill this gap by focusing on the situation of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna regions, hosting a significant proportion of the Italian wolf population, by: (i) identifying the prevalent causes of wolf mortality, (ii) summarizing their temporal and spatial patterns and (iii) applying spatially-explicit Generalized Linear Models to predict wolf persecution. Between October 2005 and February 2021, 212 wolf carcasses were collected and subjected to necropsy, being involved in collisions with vehicles (n = 104), poisoned (n = 45), wounded with gunshot (n = 24) or blunt objects (n = 4) and being hanged (n = 2). The proportion of illegally killed wolves did not increase through time. Most persecution events occurred between October and February. None of our candidate models outperformed a null model and covariates such as the density of sheep farms, number of predations on livestock, or human density were never associated to the probability of having illegally killed wolves, at the municipal scale. Our findings show that conventional correlates of wolf persecution, combined with a supposedly high proportion of non-retrieved carcasses, fail to predict illegal wolf killings in areas where the species have become ubiquitous. The widespread spatial distribution of illegal killings indicates that persecution probably arises from multiple kinds of conflicts with humans, beyond those with husbandry. Wolf conservation in Italy should thus address cryptic wolf killings with multi-disciplinary approaches, such as shared national protocols, socioecological studies, the support of experts’ experience and effective sampling schemes for the detection of carcasses

Safety Assessment of Graphene-Based Materials: Focus on Human Health and the Environment

Graphene and its derivatives are heralded as 'miracle' materials with manifold applications in different sectors of society from electronics to energy storage to medicine. The increasing exploitation of graphene-based materials (GBMs) necessitates a comprehensive evaluation of the potential impact of these materials on human health and the environment. Here we discuss synthesis and characterization of GBMs as well as human and environmental hazard assessment of GBMs using in vitro and in vivo model systems with the aim to understand the properties that underlie the biological effects of these materials; not all GBMs are alike, and it is essential that we disentangle the structure-activity relationships for this class of materials