Expedition report: Love / hate relationships: Monitoring the return of the wolf to the German state of Lower Saxony (July 2020 & June/July 2022) ...

• Main Authors: Schütte, Peter, Steinberg, Charlotte, Hammer, Matthias
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 2023
• Subjects: Wolf; Conservation; Lower Saxony; Germany; Human-wildlife conflict; Canis lupus
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8081806; https://zenodo.org/record/8081806

ABSTRACT This report details wolf Canis lupus lupus active monitoring fieldwork by Biosphere Expeditions in collaboration with the State Wolf Bureau of the German state of Lower Saxony and local wolf commissioners. Field work was conducted from 19 to 23 July 2020 in a small group of six people due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2022, field work was conducted in three groups from 25 June – 1 July (10 citizen scientists), 2 – 8 July (10 citizen scientists) and 16 – 22 July (7 citizen scientists). The aim of the expeditions was to collect samples for DNA and dietary analyses. This was done by sending small groups into the field to search for scat samples. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the expedition team in 2020 consisted of six citizen scientists only (all from Germany, except one person from Belgium). In 2022, 24 citizen scientists took part in the expedition, 12 from Germany or its immediate neighbour states (50%), six people from the United Kingdom (25%), and one person each came from USA, Australia, the ...