p. 4

[In Spain], in 1998, we calculated that the 1,500- 2,000 wolves then found in Spain killed around 5,200 head of sheep and goats, some 450 cattle and about 1,200 horses per year, costing approximately $660,000.

The damages are, however, unequally distributed, most occurring in well-conserved mountain areas with high numbers of wild ungulates. Only 20% of wolves live in such areas, but cause almost 75% of the damage in the country as a whole.

On the other hand, in agricultural areas, with hardly any wild prey and where wolves feed on livestock carrion, the damage caused by each wolf is almost one-tenth as much. This disproportion is due to the fact that the mountain livestock graze for several months of the year with hardly any surveillance by shepherds, whereas most sheep in agricultural areas are watched over by day, and locked up at night. Livestock vulnerability, not scarcity of prey, is the reason behind the damage the wolves cause.

The urban public maintains that wolves only kill between 0.04 and 1.8 percent of livestock in an area, while natural losses usually account for 5-10 percent.

In several regions, the regional governments pay damage compensation or promote insurance for livestock owners