Thursday, November 11, 1999 Published at 11:24 GMT
Campaign for Europe's carnivores
The grey wolf: They can adapt to us, if we will live with them
By Environment Correspondent Alex Kirby
The future of Europe's biggest carnivores has reached a crossroads, says the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Yet WWF thinks the predators should be encouraged to return, even when it means living close to people - to redress the ecological balance, and to act as a barometer of environmental health.
"You could say a carnivore like the lynx or the bear is rather like a canary in a coalmine", says a WWF spokeswoman.
"A viable carnivore population shows that biodiversity is healthy, because it means there are enough smaller prey species available for food".
The carnivores, WWF says, are in conservation terms "Europe's equivalent of tigers and jaguars" - they are good for the environment, they can benefit local people by attracting tourists, and yet they often arouse local hostility.
"We have the opportunity to exploit nature. Or we can co-exist with it and leave our children the opportunity to see large carnivores in the wild."
WWF wants to enhance the prospects of five European carnivores:
Some pressures affect all five species - habitat loss, hunting, loss of prey species, and road traffic.
In Italy, it has been promoting the breeding of Abruzzo mastiff dogs, used traditionally by shepherds because of their effectiveness against wolves.
Dogs are also used to guard flocks in Romania, where WWF is helping to fund a project in the Carpathians.
This is planned to be a model area to show how large numbers of wolves, bears and lynxes can live close to a big human and sheep population.
In Britain, where all the large carnivores were wiped out long ago, WWF says there is still concern over the fate of some smaller species.
It says the Scottish wild cat is endangered, and the polecat is facing renewed conflict with people when it tries to move out of its stronghold in Wales.
Only the otter is beginning a slow recovery after decades of decline.