Healthy and well fed, this is the appearance of the wolf photographed on the night of March 31, 2022 in a forest area of the Serralada de Marina Park, in the municipality of Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelonès). The snapshot - previously unpublished - was taken by an automatic camera (phototrapping) installed by technicians from this protected space of the Barcelona Provincial Council within the framework of wildlife monitoring studies.
The image of the wolf was a surprise for the technicians who reviewed the camera a few days after it was captured (these cameras are reviewed every 15 days), especially because they did not expect the presence of a specimen of this species (Canis lupus, possibly of the italicus subspecies) in an area so close to Barcelona, surrounded by buildings, industries, highways, roads, rivers channeled with concrete and railway lines.
The high-definition cameras with infrared night vision installed in this park (camouflaged and with changing location) are usually triggered automatically by the passage or presence of more common animals such as the wild boar (Sus scrofa), the roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), the genet (Genetta genetta) or even the wild cat (Felis silvestris); and of course, by human visitors.
The image shows an adult specimen, most likely a male, in more than sufficient physical condition to make long journeys in search of food or optimal terrain to temporarily establish itself. The Barcelona Provincial Council has detailed that the image reproduced in the initial part of this information is the only one in which the animal is seen completely and with sufficient quality to confirm that it is a wolf, although more specifically it is one of the three snapshots of a burst taken by the same camera (with tenths of a second difference) in which the passage of this specimen in front of the lens is observed. The camera's automatic marking indicates that the photograph was captured at 10:40 p.m. UMT (that is, 11:40 p.m. in Catalonia time).
After the first checks, the park technicians contacted the Acció Climàtica department and the body of Rural Agents of the Generalitat, responsible for monitoring this species in Catalonia. After confirmation of the discovery, "absolute discretion was chosen and not to spread the news, and a more exhaustive photo-trapping effort and camera review was made to see if it was an establishment [of the animal in the area], but it was not found." detected the wolf specimen again," said those responsible for the Barcelona Provincial Council.
In a coordinated manner, during the following weeks surveillance actions were carried out without any other images or biological remains or footprints being obtained that could provide new clues about the presence of this animal in the area. Marc Vilahur, general director of Environmental Policies and Natural Environment of the Generalitat, has recalled that after studying the case and monitoring for several days, the presence of the animal or any other indication was not detected again, so the case was not reported. to the media for considering that it was a passing presence with no further importance from a scientific point of view. The detection, however, is reflected as an "indication" of the specific presence of the wolf in the report of the Program for the Prevention of Damage Caused by the Wolf in Livestock in Catalonia: 2023.
Finally, the experts from the Generalitat and the Provincial Council accepted as valid the hypothesis that it was a specific movement of a wolf that in recent years has been seen and studied repeatedly in Moianès. The movement of a wolf from Moianès to Barcelonès is not difficult if you only count the distance since adult specimens of this species can easily cover dozens of kilometers in a day. Nor can it be ruled out that this specimen had made some intermediate step (stopover) in the Vallès Oriental, where some recent mentions of possible presence are known (without officially confirming).
