The Moscow Times
The Crimean Nature Reserve has come forward with an initiative to establish hunting limits for wolves after the animals reappeared in the area following decades of absence, a news report said Sunday.
Wolves were depopulated from the area in 1922 but have migrated back recently, the online news site Crimean News Service cited the press service of Crimea’s State Forestry Committee as saying.
The first sign that wolves had returned to the area was recorded in June, when a wildlife inspector heard one howling, the report said.
Another 14 instances of possible wolf sightings have been recorded since then, though wildlife officials have not ruled out that some of these instances involved wild dogs rather than wolves.
In April 2012, four people were injured in a wolf attack in the Krasnogvardeisky district. The wolf was shot dead and veterinarians later determined that it had rabies.
Last year, ecologists in Crimea proposed banning the hunting of wolves, arguing that it would only be beneficial to poachers.