Results 2015

• 3 expert workshops on the monitoring of large carnivores were organized for the new volunteers of “Wolf Patrols” in the Beskydy, Javorníky and Jeseníky Mountains. We have trained a total of 94 candidates; we have also extended the work of “Wolf Patrols” to the Jeseníky region. Here is how we launched the 16th year of “Wolf Patrols”.
• 167 volunteers – “Wolf Patrols” participants – were mapping the occurrence of large carnivores and monitoring any signs of illegal hunting throughout the year in the Beskydy and Jeseníky Mountains and other areas.

• 75 multi-day “Wolf Patrols” monitoring events took place in the Beskydy and Jeseníky Mountains; dozens of similar events were organized by the Brno office of Friends of the Earth Czech Republic in the Bohemian Forest and nearby areas.
• 902 field trips – organized or individual – were made, during which “Wolf Patrols” volunteers or Friends of the Earth field workers monitored the presence of large carnivores and other protected species in many areas of the Czech Republic and along the Czech-Slovak border. Thanks to this field work, we have recorded 390 documented occurrence signs of the large carnivores and more than 390 signs of the occurrence of otter, hazel grouse, and other rare forest birds.
• Several illegal meat baits were found by the “Wolf Patrols” volunteers during their field trips. We were successful in arranging their removal by the users of concerned hunting districts.
• More than 1,000 authentic photographs and videos of lynx, wolves, bears and wildcats from camera traps, 175 DNA samples, and 119 faeces samples for diet analysis and parasitological examination were collected by the “Wolf Patrols” volunteers, Friends of the Earth field workers and other participants of monitoring in the Czech-Slovak cooperation.

• More intensive use of camera traps allowed us to obtain some unique shots from the secret life of large carnivores – for example, playing wolf pups in Kysucké Beskydy, a lynx during mating season, the offspring of Draža the lynx mother exploring the camera trap or seven lynx cubs in Beskydy Mountains. With the help of these pictures, in cooperation with the Beskydy PLA Administration, we were able to identify a lynx cub killed in the traffic accident on the I/35 road. Using these footages, we have created 9 short informative and awareness-raising videos about large carnivores and their protection.
• Miroslav Kutal contributed to the peer-reviewed article published in the magazine Plos One From Wolves to Dogs, and Back: Genetic Composition of the Czechoslovakian Wolfdog, and together with Martin Váňa wrote a scientific article published in the magazine Ochrana přírody (Nature Conservation) How many rare carnivores live in our country? Monitoring of large carnivores and wildcats in the Beskydy Mountains and other places.

Information and awareness-raising campaign

• We have reprinted additional 10,000 copies of the updated publication In the footsteps of large carnivores in the Czech landscape.
• On our website, we have published informative articles on topics related to large carnivores, such as experience from other countries with the protection of livestock against wolf attacks, meeting with a lynx, the occurrence of wolves in various parts of the Czech Republic (e.g. Broumov region, Bohemian Forest), bear visit near Valašské Meziříčí; we have also shared reports on large carnivores from other countries, for example, Austria, Portugal or Denmark.
• We have informed about the presence of wildcat, a carnivore species relatively unknown to the general public.
• Sadly, we have brought some bad news too: about the death of the wolf in the Mácha’s region (the Central Bohemia) or about a young lynx killed by a car in the Vsetín region.
• With our information stand dedicated to large carnivores, we were present at major regional events, notably the celebrations of Earth Day, eco-markets, fairs, festivals and livestock shows. We also organized training for volunteers providing the information to visitors of our stand and prepared competitions for children and a visitor survey. In total, 17 information stands were visited by an estimated 11,600 people.

• We have also been running an on-line large carnivores shop obchod.selmy.cz; in addition to T-shirts, accessories, and books, we now also offer camera traps or bear sprays. The proportion of our budget spent on large carnivores’ protection which was covered by the profits from sale grew compared to the previous year.
• Together with the main office of Friends of the Earth Czech Republic, we have published a 2016 desk calendar containing the camera trap images of large carnivores and their stories.
• 25 educational programmes were organized for elementary and secondary school students, mainly in the Beskydy region and nearby villages; some of them also took place in Slovakia, thanks to the cooperation with Mendel University and Fatranský spolek (Fatra Association).
• 4 excursions for the total of 97 school children were organized in the Beskydy and Jeseníky Mountains.
• In cooperation with the Administration of Protected Landscape Area Kokořín - Mácha’s region, we prepared the exhibition Wolves return, which presented camera trap images of wolves in Doksy area. The exhibition took place at the Zahrada (Garden) eco-centre in Mladá Boleslav.
• 102,024 visits by 73,763 users were recorded at our website www.selmy.cz thanks to regularly published new information (a total of 40 on-line articles).
• We have also posted information and the latest news on our Facebook page Ochrana velkých šelem (Protection of large carnivores) which, by the end of last year, had 7,200 followers – almost double compared to the end of 2014.
• We have reactivated Twitter account @OchranaSelem with the aim to present news about large carnivores from the Czech Republic and elsewhere.
• We published 10 issues of e-zpravodaj – electronic newsletter about large carnivores with almost 1,500 subscribers.
• We issued 16 press releases and comments in relation to large carnivores and their protection. This resulted in the creation of several dozen popularizing articles, reports, and interviews.

• Together with the director Jan Svatoš we launched a new documentary Causa Carnivora, which we also released on a DVD; the premiere attended by the director took place in 4 towns (major projections in Prague, Brno, Frýdek-Místek and Nové Město na Moravě), followed by 8 more shows all over the Czech Republic with at least one expert on the large carnivores’ conservation present at each of them to discuss the topic with the public. Towards the end of 2015, the documentary was seen by at least a thousand viewers.

Mitigation of conflicts with farmers, communication with hunters

• The waste container in Staré Hamry village was secured with a special cover to prevent the access of bears; in total, there are now seven such containers in three municipalities in the Beskydy Mountains.
• On twelve occasions, we advised sheep and goats farmers on how to effectively protect their livestock against large carnivores and how to claim compensation for damage.  We have borrowed an electric fence to some farmers whose livestock was at imminent risk.
• We arranged twenty personal meetings and consultations over the phone with foresters and hunters in the Beskydy Mountains with whom we cooperate in the monitoring of large carnivores.
• 19 expert lectures were given by our workers at scientific conferences, seminars, and workshops or universities both in the Czech Republic and abroad.

Protection of migration corridors and habitats of large carnivores in decision-making processes

• We made sure that migration corridors of large carnivores and other mammals were respected in the newly discussed land-use plans in the Beskydy Mountains.
• We continued planting the trees in the wildlife corridor in Jablunkov, which we had started together with local residents and hunters; in three years, we have planted more than 5,500 trees and shrubs in four different places with a total area greater than 1 hectare.
• Already for the third time, we appealed against the decision of the Rožnov pod Radhoštěm City Office on the building of utility lines for the planned industrial zone in Zubří (located in a flood area and a migration corridor of large carnivores). At the beginning of 2016, the Zlín Regional Authority upheld our appeal and cancelled for the third time the unlawful decision.  In 2015, the new zoning plan of Zubří was approved which does not contain an industrial zone (partially because of our comments). The area is thus protected against any further development.
• For the second year, we submitted our comments on the building of “hangar” sheep-fold (100 × 50m) in Videč, Rožnov region, which was designed to stand right in the centre of a wildlife corridor in the gap between two villages. Instead of covering the open countryside with concrete, we proposed the use of old agricultural brownfield, for example, in the compound of the former agricultural cooperative in Videč. Together with local residents, we participated in public consultations on the project and, at the beginning of 2016, the Zlín Regional Authority issued a negative opinion on the plan.

Results 2016