Italy wolf CC BY-SA 3.0

Italy

Italy is the 10th largest country in Europe. Oddly, it has proved to successfully hold on to many of the species lost elsewhere. Some of these have returned, and there is ongoing debate about bringing back those still missing.

Wolves were thought to number around 3307 last year, and with growth of 6-7% that would be around 3500 this year (if still growing at that pace. They hit their low point in the 1970s with 70-100 individuals. while considered a separate subspecies, it is likely that any differences in appearance is due to the bottleneck that populations have gone through, and probably not significant differences in the actual animals. More to the point, it is far better for the European wolf population to make sure the genetic width of the population is there. It should be noted that the French wolf population was founded out of the Italian population, through migration back in 1992. The Italian wolves can be seen through much of the peninsula on the west of the country, using the Apennines mountain range as a highway.

 

Filter by
to to

Add your own marker

Marker Title
Marker Address or GPS Location

Or right-click on the map and drag to add a marker

Marker Description
Marker Category
Date
Time
Please tick this box to prove you are human

There are currently 2 populations of bears in Italy. The Marsican bear lives in the Apennines of Italy, alongside the Italian wolf, however this population only number 60-80. The other population is to replace a recently extinct population only lost 34 years ago, when the italian Alps population fell to 3 members, without a single breeding female. A decision was made to start translocating bears from Slovenia. That has been incredibly successful – with the population now thought to be around 100.

There are thought to be just 200 lynx in Italy. While there is a population in the northern province of belluno in Italy, there are also many along the border between Switzerland and Slovenia, where across the border there are established populations. I look at how close these are, and wonder whether the Belluno population may have a similar origin.

Bison were locally extinct in Italy are but have been reintroduced into Viva Natura park near Verona, though this is only to ready the herd for the true reintroduction into the wilds of Romania.. 

Links to areas to visit will appear below. We are open to listing any tourism businesses that work in the natural world in Italy.  Click “list your wild place” at the top of the page or here   it is a quick process.

Italy News

See Animals Wild
en English
af Afrikaanssq Albanianam Amharicar Arabichy Armenianaz Azerbaijanieu Basquebe Belarusianbn Bengalibs Bosnianbg Bulgarianca Catalanceb Cebuanony Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)zh-TW Chinese (Traditional)co Corsicanhr Croatiancs Czechda Danishnl Dutchen Englisheo Esperantoet Estoniantl Filipinofi Finnishfr Frenchfy Frisiangl Galicianka Georgiande Germanel Greekgu Gujaratiht Haitian Creoleha Hausahaw Hawaiianiw Hebrewhi Hindihmn Hmonghu Hungarianis Icelandicig Igboid Indonesianga Irishit Italianja Japanesejw Javanesekn Kannadakk Kazakhkm Khmerko Koreanku Kurdish (Kurmanji)ky Kyrgyzlo Laola Latinlv Latvianlt Lithuanianlb Luxembourgishmk Macedonianmg Malagasyms Malayml Malayalammt Maltesemi Maorimr Marathimn Mongolianmy Myanmar (Burmese)ne Nepalino Norwegianps Pashtofa Persianpl Polishpt Portuguesepa Punjabiro Romanianru Russiansm Samoangd Scottish Gaelicsr Serbianst Sesothosn Shonasd Sindhisi Sinhalask Slovaksl Slovenianso Somalies Spanishsu Sundanesesw Swahilisv Swedishtg Tajikta Tamilte Teluguth Thaitr Turkishuk Ukrainianur Urduuz Uzbekvi Vietnamesecy Welshxh Xhosayi Yiddishyo Yorubazu Zulu

Read more news

Join as a wild member
to list your wild place & log in

Join as an ambassador supporter to
support this site, help save wildlife
and make friends & log in

Join as an Associate member
to assist as a writer, creator, lister etc & to log in

List a wild destination

List a destination in
the shadow of man

List a hide for animals more easily seen this way

Highlight some news
missed, or submit a
one-off article

Browse destinations for fun or future travel

Temporary membership
start here if in a hurry

Casual readers and watchers