Dogs, not wolves, most likely to have caused the death of a British tourist in northern Greece
Wolf (Canis lupus) populations have recovered and expanded across many parts of the world thanks to conservation efforts, including improved legal status and restoration of their prey. Concurrently, public concerns regarding the risk of wolf attacks on humans and livestock are increasing as wolves o...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.50.81915 https://doaj.org/article/1bb5162b423647eb9db41108a961f1d4 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:1bb5162b423647eb9db41108a961f1d4 2023-05-15T15:51:17+02:00 Dogs, not wolves, most likely to have caused the death of a British tourist in northern Greece Yorgos Iliopoulos Christos Astaras Eirini Chatzimichail 2022-10-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.50.81915 https://doaj.org/article/1bb5162b423647eb9db41108a961f1d4 EN eng Pensoft Publishers https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/81915/download/pdf/ https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/81915/download/xml/ https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/81915/ https://doaj.org/toc/1314-3301 doi:10.3897/natureconservation.50.81915 1314-3301 https://doaj.org/article/1bb5162b423647eb9db41108a961f1d4 Nature Conservation, Vol 50, Iss , Pp 115-143 (2022) Ecology QH540-549.5 General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.50.81915 2023-01-22T01:33:52Z Wolf (Canis lupus) populations have recovered and expanded across many parts of the world thanks to conservation efforts, including improved legal status and restoration of their prey. Concurrently, public concerns regarding the risk of wolf attacks on humans and livestock are increasing as wolves occupy human-dominated landscapes. We examined a unique case in Europe allegedly involving wolves in the death of a female British tourist, aged 64, in northern Greece in September 2017. This incident received extensive international media attention and yet many fundamental details of the case area are lacking, including whether local livestock guarding dogs played a role. To assist in resolving the case, we conducted an extensive literature review which documented 13 criteria linked to the risk of either a wolf and/or a dog attacking a human. We also conducted a camera trap survey (October to December 2017) soon after the fatal attack to calculate the activity overlap among humans, dogs and wolves. Sufficient data were available for assessing 11 of the 13 criteria. For the remaining two, the required data were either not analysed (i.e. canid DNA collected from the attack site), not appropriately collected (i.e. DNA from the mouths of suspected dogs) or were collected, but misinterpreted (i.e. the post-consumption patterns of the victim’s corpse). Via this combination of evidence, we conclude that this case involved a fatal dog attack. This assertion is supported by evidence such as the: a) high dog-human activity overlap at the attack site which peaked during the attack time as opposed to near zero wolf-human activity overlap at the same time, b) presence of a large pack of unsupervised dogs, c) high ratio of male dogs in the dog pack, d) close vicinity of the attack site to dog owner’s property and e) previous documented aggression of these dogs towards humans. The consumption patterns, time scale and location of the victim’s remains indicate a posthumous consumption of the corpse possibly by the same dogs and/or by ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Canis lupus Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Nature Conservation 50 115 143 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Ecology QH540-549.5 General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 |
spellingShingle |
Ecology QH540-549.5 General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 Yorgos Iliopoulos Christos Astaras Eirini Chatzimichail Dogs, not wolves, most likely to have caused the death of a British tourist in northern Greece |
topic_facet |
Ecology QH540-549.5 General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 |
description |
Wolf (Canis lupus) populations have recovered and expanded across many parts of the world thanks to conservation efforts, including improved legal status and restoration of their prey. Concurrently, public concerns regarding the risk of wolf attacks on humans and livestock are increasing as wolves occupy human-dominated landscapes. We examined a unique case in Europe allegedly involving wolves in the death of a female British tourist, aged 64, in northern Greece in September 2017. This incident received extensive international media attention and yet many fundamental details of the case area are lacking, including whether local livestock guarding dogs played a role. To assist in resolving the case, we conducted an extensive literature review which documented 13 criteria linked to the risk of either a wolf and/or a dog attacking a human. We also conducted a camera trap survey (October to December 2017) soon after the fatal attack to calculate the activity overlap among humans, dogs and wolves. Sufficient data were available for assessing 11 of the 13 criteria. For the remaining two, the required data were either not analysed (i.e. canid DNA collected from the attack site), not appropriately collected (i.e. DNA from the mouths of suspected dogs) or were collected, but misinterpreted (i.e. the post-consumption patterns of the victim’s corpse). Via this combination of evidence, we conclude that this case involved a fatal dog attack. This assertion is supported by evidence such as the: a) high dog-human activity overlap at the attack site which peaked during the attack time as opposed to near zero wolf-human activity overlap at the same time, b) presence of a large pack of unsupervised dogs, c) high ratio of male dogs in the dog pack, d) close vicinity of the attack site to dog owner’s property and e) previous documented aggression of these dogs towards humans. The consumption patterns, time scale and location of the victim’s remains indicate a posthumous consumption of the corpse possibly by the same dogs and/or by ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Yorgos Iliopoulos Christos Astaras Eirini Chatzimichail |
author_facet |
Yorgos Iliopoulos Christos Astaras Eirini Chatzimichail |
author_sort |
Yorgos Iliopoulos |
title |
Dogs, not wolves, most likely to have caused the death of a British tourist in northern Greece |
title_short |
Dogs, not wolves, most likely to have caused the death of a British tourist in northern Greece |
title_full |
Dogs, not wolves, most likely to have caused the death of a British tourist in northern Greece |
title_fullStr |
Dogs, not wolves, most likely to have caused the death of a British tourist in northern Greece |
title_full_unstemmed |
Dogs, not wolves, most likely to have caused the death of a British tourist in northern Greece |
title_sort |
dogs, not wolves, most likely to have caused the death of a british tourist in northern greece |
publisher |
Pensoft Publishers |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.50.81915 https://doaj.org/article/1bb5162b423647eb9db41108a961f1d4 |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_source |
Nature Conservation, Vol 50, Iss , Pp 115-143 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/81915/download/pdf/ https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/81915/download/xml/ https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/81915/ https://doaj.org/toc/1314-3301 doi:10.3897/natureconservation.50.81915 1314-3301 https://doaj.org/article/1bb5162b423647eb9db41108a961f1d4 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.50.81915 |
container_title |
Nature Conservation |
container_volume |
50 |
container_start_page |
115 |
op_container_end_page |
143 |
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1766386447521153024 |