Shauli Waksman, a long-time cattle farmer from Moshav Ofer on the Carmel coast, had a John Deere tractor and a quad bike stolen two weeks ago, part of a recent wave of such crime.

"We're back to the good old days of the British Mandate," Waksman said, "but in those days at least you could shoot the thieves."
 

Last week Waksman found himself plagued by another kind of thief - a wolf in the herd. Waksman and his son Baz reported the sighting to the Israel Nature and Parks Protection Authority (INPPA) ranger for the region, Alon Levy, who answered: "I'll believe it when I see it."

Packs of wolves have in recent years begun migrating south from the Golan via the Hula Valley to the Galilee and the Jezreel Valley, and there have been uncorroborated sightings in Ramat Menashe in the lower Galilee. However, they have not been seen for decades in the coastal plain or the Carmel - not since the custom of shooting cattle-rustlers stopped.

Dotan Rotem, the INPPA Carmel region ecologist, said wolves are known to move great distances over a short period of time, but he added that he was suspending judgment "until I see a picture or a wolf carcass for myself."

Rotem's proof came last week. At the Waksmans' insistence, Levy conducted a few lookouts and saw for himself: a she-wolf occasionally wandering in the pastures between the moshavs of Ofer and Bat-Shomo, and once jumping easily over the fence of a corral.

Two things bothered the INPPA experts: There was concern the wolf was looking for a new-born calf to prey on, and the wolf was continually seen in the company of an apparently stray male dog.

The possibility of the wolf being impregnated by a dog and giving birth to mixed species pups "worries us a lot," said Alon Reichman, the INPPA carnivore ecologist. "It can do severe damage to the wolf population as wild animals, and we have to prevent it." Levy was ordered to shoot the wolf.

The INPPA was left with a 30-kilogram wolf carcass and many questions. Was this the one-time migration of a she-wolf that had been ousted from a pack further north and found her way to the Carmel? Was she part of a pack that has migrated to the Carmel? Should nature take its course and wolves be allowed to gain a foothold in the area?

According to INPPA estimates, there are about 400 wolves in Israel. More than 100 live in the Golan Heights, which has one of the highest ratios of wolves per square kilometer in the world. The southern Arava is home to a few more packs, as is the eastern Galilee and Mount Gilboa. This is considered an achievement; wolves have been completely destroyed in neighboring countries, while their population has rejuvenated in Israel, where they are a protected species.

Reichman said wolves are very intelligent and strong, with far more developed instincts than dogs. Their average weight, 35 kilograms, is about half that of their counterparts in North America; they are also smaller than the Northern European wolves that feature in some of the Grimms' fairy tales.

Reichman said the Israeli wolf posed no risk to humans. However, it is a continual threat to cattle and sheep farmers. In nature, wolves prey on wild boars, gazelles and other animals. But when they penetrate agricultural areas, a pack of wolves can kill a calf, he said, while a lone adult wolf can easily take a defenseless sheep. In the Golan Heights, several cases of calf deaths in recent years have been chalked up to wolf predation.

The INPPA's policy is to cull wolves in sheep- and cattle-raising areas, out of concern that farmers will implement their own policies of control, including poisonings that might harm other wild species. In 2003, in the Golan Heights alone, cattle farmers and INPPA rangers culled 45 wolves, estimated at one-third to one-half the total population. Seven other wolves that penetrated communities and preyed on animals were shot in other areas of the north.

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