Russia has one of the largest wolf populations in the world - according to official data 45,000 animals at the present time. They are not protected by law and can be hunted all year round and by all methods, including from aircraft and motorised vehicles. The methods most commonly used are shooting, traps and poison. This state-approved persecution appeared not to be affecting the wolf population to any significant extent until recently, when biologists began to notice a decline in numbers, particularly in European Russia, close to the borders with the neighbouring countries of Finland, Ukraine and Belarus.

In 2005/6, Wolves and Humans funded a project to obtain more accurate figures for the number of wolves in the Tver region of central European Russia. The census estimated wolf numbers by locating wolf packs and den sites, estimating the average wolf pack size (6.8) using winter snow-tracking surveys and, and adjusting this using official statistics for the number of wolves killed.

The census estimated a total of 122 wolves in 32 of the 36 districts of the 84,000 sq km region (there are no wolves in four districts bordering the Moscow region) in 2006. Official data between 1991 and 1999 gives an average figure of 581 wolves in the region.

The massive discrepancy between official figures and the new census can be partly explained by overestimation in the official figures, collected from a Winter Route Census organised by the Hunting Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, probably as a result of multiple counts of the same tracks by different researchers in different transects. Past research by Vladimir Bologov and his father Viktor, has indicated that the official figures may be overestimated by a third, giving a more realistic average of 389 wolves. This still means that wolves have declined by nearly a third in the region since 1999.

Among the possible reasons for this decline is the decrease in density of both wild boar and elk (moose) - the favoured prey of wolves in the region - over the last ten years. Wild boar numbers have been increasing again since 2005, and from 2006 the use of poison by hunters was banned, so researchers are optimistic that wolves dispersing this year will find vacant territories and quickly repopulate the region. However, it is clear that more research, management of hunting of prey species, and the end of the current bounty system is needed to ensure the decline does not continue and is not repeated in future years.

By superimposing wolf pack locations and population densities over other data on digital maps, the study has also produced the following conclusions;

• wolf presence is more related to moose presence than wild boar;

• wolves prefer habitat where the forest to field ratio of around 2:1 (this is preferred even over totally forested habitat);

• generally, wolves are present in lower densities in districts with higher human population density (exceptions are Torjoksky district, where wolves are present despite high human population, and Ostachkovsky, which has very few human inhabitants and no wolves at all).

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