Redazione ANSA
(ANSA) – Cuneo, June 21 – Six wolf cubs were born at the Men and Wolves Center in the Alpine village of Entracque in Cuneo province, national park officials said Tuesday.
This is the first litter born to Hope and Albert, two Italian wolves living in a six-hectare wildlife reserve in the Maritime Alps Nature Park. The Center also hosts she-wolves Emilia, Ormea, and Gina, who grew up in the wild and were rescued after being run over by cars. The cubs have been vetted and micro-chipped, and park officials may issue a call for the public to suggest names for them.
The newcomers belong to the Italian wolf subspecies (Canis lupus italicus), a grey wolf that is native to the Italian Peninsula. It inhabits the mountainous areas of the Apennines and the western Alps, where it made a comeback in the 1990s after going extinct there in the early 1900s. Although it is a protected species, hunters, breeders and farmers still kill these wolves in the belief that they threaten livestock. In fact, the Italian wolf diet is based on wild herbivores such as deer, which it hunts in small packs, using very complex and efficient techniques. There are currently 20-25 Italian wolves living in the wild in the Maritime Alps, according to park officials.