wolf
The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, includin ...
University of Ljubljana
The University of Ljubljana (, , ), abbreviated UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 38,000 enrolled students. The university has 23 faculties and three art academies with approximately 4,000 teaching and re ...
's
Biology
Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
department between July 2011 and August 2012, as part the EU-funded ''SloWolf'' project.
Slavc was born as part of the ''Slavnik'' wolf pack, which ranges from
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...
in
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
Učka
The Učka (, ) is a mountain range in western Croatia. It rises behind the Opatija riviera, on the eastern side of the Istrian peninsula.
It forms a single morphological unit together with the Ćićarija range which stretches from the Bay of T ...
mountain range in
Croatia
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
. In July 2011, he was fitted with a
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...
-
GSM
The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...
- VHF collar by the biologist Hubert Potočnik near
Ćićarija
Ćićarija (; ; ; ) is a mountainous plateau in the northern and northeastern part of the Istria peninsula, long and wide. It mostly lies in Croatia, while its northern part lies in southwestern Slovenia (the traditional region of Inner Carniol ...
, then proceeded northwards, traversing
Vipava Valley
The Vipava Valley (; , , ) is a valley in the Slovenian Littoral, roughly between the village of Podnanos to the east and the border with Italy to the west. The main towns are Ajdovščina and Vipava.
Geography
The narrow valley of the Vipav ...
, Trnova forest, then through
Ljubljana Basin
The Ljubljana Basin () is a basin in the upper river basin of Sava. It is the most populated area in Slovenia and it is metropolitan area of Ljubljana. Its main rivers are the Sava, the Kamnik Bistrica and the Ljubljanica.
Cities and towns
* ...
, subsequently reaching the vicinity of Klagenfurt within 10 days. The data transmitted by his collar suggested that Slavc had swum across the
Drava
The Drava or Drave (, ; ; ; ; ), historically known as the Dravis or Dravus, is a river in southern Central Europe.
river at a location where the river is wide with no bridges nearby. Some of the mountain passes the wolf crossed were at elevations of and with snow covers that were deep. By March 2012 Slavc had arrived in the
Valpolicella
Valpolicella (, , ) is a viticultural zone of the province of Verona, Italy (wine), Italy, east of Lake Garda. The hilly agricultural and marble-quarrying region of small holdings north of the Adige is famous for wine production. Valpolicella ra ...
, part of Verona province in Italy. His sighting was the first of a wild wolf in Verona in more than 130 years. He then moved back north towards the Lessinia Regional Nature Park, where he formed a pair bond with a female nicknamed Juliet. The journey had seen Slavc travel for around in total.
Slavc's collar was programmed to drop off automatically in August 2012. He was assumed to still be in
Lessinia
Lessinia, or Lessini Mountains, is a plateau and alpine supergroup located mainly in the province of Verona and partially in the provinces of Province of Vicenza, Vicenza and Trentino, Trento.
Part of the Lessinia territory constitutes the Lessi ...
, where he had two pups with his mate. There were indications that the pair had birthed another litter in 2014. Juliet was thought to have been killed by members of a rival pack in mid-January 2022, with Slavc being sighted in July of that year with a new mate nicknamed ''Orecchio Mozzo'' (, "nick ear"). The last verified sighting of Slavc occurred on 13 August 2022, and Orecchio Mozzo was later observed to be accompanied by another male, thus leading to the conclusion that Slavc had died sometime in the winter of 2022-2023.
See also
*
OR-7
OR-7, also known as Journey, was a male gray wolf that was electronically tracked as he migrated from the Wallowa Mountains in the northeastern corner of the U.S. state of Oregon to the southern Cascade Range. After the wolf dispersed from his ...
*
List of wolves
{{about, individual wolves, a list of wolf species, List of canids, individual dogs, List of individual dogs
Wolves are mammals in the genus ''Canis''. While the term "wolf" most commonly refers to the grey wolf, it may also refer to closely relate ...