have to be investigated was far too 
big. In the Alps wolves had been ex- 
terminated by the end of the nine- 
teenth century, but no one knew where 
they still survived in the Apennines, 
which stretch all the way from south 
of the Po Valley to the southern tip 
of Calabria. Even if we confined our- 
selves to the higher altitudes, that 
would still mean an area of about 
27,000 square miles. So we decided 
that Luigi should first visit all the 
areas where wolves might still be ex- 
pected to exist and gain an impression 
of their numbers and distribution by 
questioning local people. 
He soon found that most of the in- 
formation he was given was useless. 
Too many prejudices and lively imagi- 
nations led in most cases to the wildest 
exaggerations. Finally, he concen- 
trated on questioning people who had 
direct contact with wolves, such as 
foresters, road workers, hunters, and 
shepherds, although much of what 
they told him was contradictory. 
The only certainty seemed to be 
that for several years the wolf had 
been extinct in both the northernmost 
and southernmost parts of the Apen- 
nines; it had also been exterminated 
in Sicily. Elsewhere, its distribution 
seemed to be restricted to about ten 
enclaves in the higher parts of the 
Apennines. Luigi felt that because of 
the density of human settlement and 
the many roads, highways, and railway 
lines in the lower areas, there could 
be no connection between the wolves 
in these various enclaves. As the es- 
timated number of wolves in some of 
these areas was very small, it looked 
as if their extinction there was only 
a matter of time. 
In the only distribution area outside 
the higher areas of the Apennines, 
the Tolfa, just north of Rome, the 
wolves’ days seemed to be numbered 
too. We were surprised that they had 
survived at all. The Tolfa is an ex- 
tensive but sparsely inhabited farm 
region in which good refuge areas for 
wolves seemed to be completely lack- 
ing. That wolves did exist there, how- 
ever, was demonstrated by the dis- 
covery within the city limits of Rome 
of a young wolf that had been run 
over by an automobile. 
I was eager to begin an actual count. 
Luigi suggested the Abruzzi, an area 
in the central portion of the Apennines 
easily accessible from Rome. On the 
basis of his inquiries, he estimated 
that within a 650-square-mile-area in 
the Abruzzi, there were about twenty- 
five wolves. The Abruzzi is bounded 
by the Gran Sasso in the north, Monte 
Velino and Monte Sirente in the west, 
the Maiella massif in the east, and 
the Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo in the 
south. There is a strong maritime in- 
fluence on the climate and, at higher 
altitudes, an annual precipitation of 
more than fifty inches. There is pre- 
cipitation about 110 days each year, 
and in winter there is generally per- 
manent snow cover above the 3,000- 
foot level. 
While the northern part of the 
Abruzzi is to a large extent unwooded, 
thick beech forests cover the steep 
mountain slopes from 3,600 to 6,000 
feet in the central and southern re- 
gions. In some places in the national 
park area, primeval pine forests still 
survive. Above the forested area there 
is extensive open pastureland that fi- 
nally gives way to a bare, rocky high- 
mountain zone. Below 3,600 feet the 
common beech gives way to hornbeam 
and oak. Here, too, there is extensive 
pastureland, and in the valleys corn 
and wheat are cultivated. Still lower, 
at altitudes below 2,000 feet, grapes, 
as well as other fruits, vegetables, and 
wheat are grown. 
At altitudes of more than 2,500 feet, 
sheep are kept. The local flocks are 
small, seldom exceeding two hundred 
sheep and a few goats. At night the 
sheep are held in stone sheds in the 
villages, and when there is no snow 
on the ground they are driven out 
to pasture close to the villages. In 
summer some are taken higher up into 
the mountains, where they spend the 
night in fenced pens. In addition to 
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