Mike Richardson
Formerly known as Skink1978
23 February, 2013
Very early Saturday morning four bleary-eyed Yorkshire men emerged from a nondescript travel hotel on the edge of Luton airport and slowly made their way towards the terminal building. Beers consumed the previous evening combined with only a couple of hours sleep meant the conversation was limited to a couple of grunts, at least before some caffeine was consumed.
The team comprised of John Sadler, James Spencer and myself, all from East Yorks. We were joined by Leeds based Rob Jackson who, like the rest of us, had made his way down to Luton the previous evening.
Before long we were on an Easyjet flight en route to Madrid airport where we collected our trusty Opel Zafira from Advantage car rental. Little time was wasted as we headed out of the city and made our way to the north-west province of Zamora.
The birding began almost immediately and early trip ticks included plentiful Red Kites, Raven and a lone Griffon Vulture. While swapping drivers at a roadside service station, James called some Calandra Lark in the adjacent cultivated area and more familiar species such as Linnet and White Stork were also noted.
Mid afternoon we arrived at our destination and easily found our accommodation in the tiny village of Villanueva de Valrojo. The basic but comfortable Posada El Tejar is run by Raul and his sister Monica and they both greeted us warmly as we dumped the luggage into our rooms.
Spain doesn’t get any more rural than the broad valleys of the Sierra de la Culebra. The village appeared almost deserted and passing cars on the nearby road were always few and far between. In fact the human population of the area has significantly decreased over the last forty years with many people heading to the cities to find work. This in turn has led to the regeneration of natural vegetation in former agricultural areas and the huge increase in large mammal species such as Roe Deer and Wild Boar. The reason for our visit was directly related to this chain of events.
Once heavily persecuted across Spain, the Iberian Wolf, or Lobo as it’s known locally, was wiped out in all but the most remote areas of the country. At an all time low estimated at 500 individuals, the changes in the countryside combined with enlightened attitudes and increased protection has seen wolf numbers gradually increase to 2,500 - 3,000 individuals, many of these living in the Sierra de la Culebra.
Although still extremely elusive and distrusting of humans (wolves are still hunted, both illegally and by permit), the area still offers the best chance of observing a wild wolf in Europe. Over the past few years a small ecotourism industry has developed with several well known wildlife tour companies offering trips to the region.
Despite site gen being rather successfully kept out of the public domain, an increasing number of people are making independent wolf watching trips to the Sierra de la Culebra. The chance of success is rather low but this didn’t deter our team as we grabbed our optics and set out on our first evening wolf vigil.
The only realistic chance of observing wild Iberian Wolves is from watch points that overlook vast areas of heather clad hillside and conifer plantations. Powerful telescopes are almost as essential as patience. Finding such watch points can be problematic without decent directions.
Perhaps our tiredness impaired our ability to read directions, or maybe they were badly written. Either way we spent an hour or so driving down dirt tracks of varying quality looking for one of the vistas from which a pack of wolves are often seen. We did find a stunning Iberian Grey Shrike and some Red-legged Partridge, along with old wolf scat and paw prints. Eventually we came across some high ground from which it was possible to scan a large area of heath. Opinions were divided as to whether we were in the correct place (further directions later confirmed we were in the wrong area), but eventually we decided to phone friends of John who coincidently were also visiting the area, but staying in ‘the other’ wolf watching hotel located in a different village.
Fortunately they were able to direct us to another watch point situated on a high track running parallel to a railway line. We arrived shortly after to find a good handful of other wolf watchers, including a local guide.
At first I felt rather optimistic, especially now we had plenty of eyes to help search for the wolves, along with a source of recent gen. It turned out the resident pack had not been seen for a week, but had previously before been showing fairly well before dusk and an hour or two after dawn. Less welcoming was the news that the practice of baiting wolves with dead domestic animals has stopped. As a result sightings are far less likely (I should add that this information was received second hand and could not be verified).
Looking at the vast vista before us the enormity of our task became clear. The majority of the area was cloaked in thick heather with belts of conifers providing plenty of hiding places. I guess we had to hope that the wolves crossed one of the firebreaks, tracks or small clearings, most of which were distant.
The temperature dropped well below zero as we scanned the hillside picking up small numbers of Roe Deer which had emerged from the shadows to feed. They were joined by Red Deer including some rather impressive stags, while in the scrub directly behind we added Wren and Dunnock to the bird list.
Despite the amount of people searching there was no sign of our main quarry. Although it was far too early for pessimism, news had filtered through that an earlier independent team of experienced wildlife watchers (including BF’ers Steve Babbs and John Dixon) had just returned to England after spending four days in the area. They had not seen a wolf.
Once the light had gone we returned back to the hotel for a delicious, if not garlicky meal, washed down with a couple of beers (the bar had been restocked following the earlier visit by Steve and John). Tomorrow was another day.
Very early Saturday morning four bleary-eyed Yorkshire men emerged from a nondescript travel hotel on the edge of Luton airport and slowly made their way towards the terminal building. Beers consumed the previous evening combined with only a couple of hours sleep meant the conversation was limited to a couple of grunts, at least before some caffeine was consumed.
The team comprised of John Sadler, James Spencer and myself, all from East Yorks. We were joined by Leeds based Rob Jackson who, like the rest of us, had made his way down to Luton the previous evening.
Before long we were on an Easyjet flight en route to Madrid airport where we collected our trusty Opel Zafira from Advantage car rental. Little time was wasted as we headed out of the city and made our way to the north-west province of Zamora.
The birding began almost immediately and early trip ticks included plentiful Red Kites, Raven and a lone Griffon Vulture. While swapping drivers at a roadside service station, James called some Calandra Lark in the adjacent cultivated area and more familiar species such as Linnet and White Stork were also noted.
Mid afternoon we arrived at our destination and easily found our accommodation in the tiny village of Villanueva de Valrojo. The basic but comfortable Posada El Tejar is run by Raul and his sister Monica and they both greeted us warmly as we dumped the luggage into our rooms.
Spain doesn’t get any more rural than the broad valleys of the Sierra de la Culebra. The village appeared almost deserted and passing cars on the nearby road were always few and far between. In fact the human population of the area has significantly decreased over the last forty years with many people heading to the cities to find work. This in turn has led to the regeneration of natural vegetation in former agricultural areas and the huge increase in large mammal species such as Roe Deer and Wild Boar. The reason for our visit was directly related to this chain of events.
Once heavily persecuted across Spain, the Iberian Wolf, or Lobo as it’s known locally, was wiped out in all but the most remote areas of the country. At an all time low estimated at 500 individuals, the changes in the countryside combined with enlightened attitudes and increased protection has seen wolf numbers gradually increase to 2,500 - 3,000 individuals, many of these living in the Sierra de la Culebra.
Although still extremely elusive and distrusting of humans (wolves are still hunted, both illegally and by permit), the area still offers the best chance of observing a wild wolf in Europe. Over the past few years a small ecotourism industry has developed with several well known wildlife tour companies offering trips to the region.
Despite site gen being rather successfully kept out of the public domain, an increasing number of people are making independent wolf watching trips to the Sierra de la Culebra. The chance of success is rather low but this didn’t deter our team as we grabbed our optics and set out on our first evening wolf vigil.
The only realistic chance of observing wild Iberian Wolves is from watch points that overlook vast areas of heather clad hillside and conifer plantations. Powerful telescopes are almost as essential as patience. Finding such watch points can be problematic without decent directions.
Perhaps our tiredness impaired our ability to read directions, or maybe they were badly written. Either way we spent an hour or so driving down dirt tracks of varying quality looking for one of the vistas from which a pack of wolves are often seen. We did find a stunning Iberian Grey Shrike and some Red-legged Partridge, along with old wolf scat and paw prints. Eventually we came across some high ground from which it was possible to scan a large area of heath. Opinions were divided as to whether we were in the correct place (further directions later confirmed we were in the wrong area), but eventually we decided to phone friends of John who coincidently were also visiting the area, but staying in ‘the other’ wolf watching hotel located in a different village.
Fortunately they were able to direct us to another watch point situated on a high track running parallel to a railway line. We arrived shortly after to find a good handful of other wolf watchers, including a local guide.
At first I felt rather optimistic, especially now we had plenty of eyes to help search for the wolves, along with a source of recent gen. It turned out the resident pack had not been seen for a week, but had previously before been showing fairly well before dusk and an hour or two after dawn. Less welcoming was the news that the practice of baiting wolves with dead domestic animals has stopped. As a result sightings are far less likely (I should add that this information was received second hand and could not be verified).
Looking at the vast vista before us the enormity of our task became clear. The majority of the area was cloaked in thick heather with belts of conifers providing plenty of hiding places. I guess we had to hope that the wolves crossed one of the firebreaks, tracks or small clearings, most of which were distant.
The temperature dropped well below zero as we scanned the hillside picking up small numbers of Roe Deer which had emerged from the shadows to feed. They were joined by Red Deer including some rather impressive stags, while in the scrub directly behind we added Wren and Dunnock to the bird list.
Despite the amount of people searching there was no sign of our main quarry. Although it was far too early for pessimism, news had filtered through that an earlier independent team of experienced wildlife watchers (including BF’ers Steve Babbs and John Dixon) had just returned to England after spending four days in the area. They had not seen a wolf.
Once the light had gone we returned back to the hotel for a delicious, if not garlicky meal, washed down with a couple of beers (the bar had been restocked following the earlier visit by Steve and John). Tomorrow was another day.