"I have my own hunting ground in Macedonia called Lakavica. Encompassing 8,600 hectares (21,250 acres), I have fenced 2,500 hectares (6,177 acres or 9.6 square miles) in order to protect the game that I have there from wolves. The animals inside this area include mouflon sheep, fallow deer, Kri Kri ibex, alpine ibex, Barbary sheep, axis deer, roe deer, tahr and wild boar. Despite the fence, this year alone I lost over 50 game animals to the wolves. One pack of wolves learned how to skip over the fence last winter and had done great damage. This pack consisted of at least five wolves (established from the tracks); we trapped two, and three were shot by my gamekeepers or local hunters on one of the 20 organized drives we've staged. Typically we shoot or trap six or seven wolves every year to protect the game within the hunting ground.
"However, the largest concentration of wolves is in the unfenced part of the hunting ground and in the bordering hunting area that belongs to the local hunting association. Here it's estimated there are over 150 wolves on 40,000 hectares (almost 100,000 acres). This is one of the largest concentrations of wolves in Europe, maybe in the world. The high concentration is the result of a nearby pig farm that annually produces 10,000 pigs. It has been there for over 40 years, and all the pigs that die before slaughter are deposited in one place as food for the wolves. This food supply has allowed an increase in the survival rate of the young wolves during the winter. Wolves from all over Macedonia concentrate in this area during the........(continued)
