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: 2023
• Subjects: Wolf; Conservation; Lower Saxony; Germany; Human-wildlife conflict; Canis lupus
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/8081807; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8081807

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 Netherlands, Ireland and Belgium (4% respectively). Before commencement of field work, which was exclusively conducted on public paths and bridleways, citizen scientists were trained for 1.5 days in sample detection, sampling and data collection techniques. The study area covered various priority areas in Lower Saxony as advised or requested by the State Wolf Bureau, wolf commissioners, hunters and the State Forestry Authority. Thirty-one 10 km x 10 km grid cells of the European Environment Agency (EEA) reference grid system and almost 1087 km were surveyed on foot. Some grid cells were surveyed multiple times so that they were covered a total of 52 times. 349 wolf scat samples were identified during the field work in 2020 and 2022, 196 of which were included into the official wolf monitoring programme. 145 samples were frozen for dietary analysis and 22 of those were fresh enough for DNA analysis. A number of possible wolf paw prints and scats were also found, but did not pass quality assessment procedures ...