Rat poison threatens Italy ’s growing wolf population

Over the past few decades, Italy’s growing population of wolves has begun to edge closer to urban areas, attracted in part by tasty prey such as rats and mice. But a recent study suggests city life carries a potentially deadly risk for the predators: eating rodents tainted with poison. Analyses of more than 180 wolf carcasses found in Central and Northern Italy revealed that nearly two-thirds tested positive for rodenticides, suggesting the chemicals pose a bigger threat to wolves than previously understood. “The results were totally unexpected,” says ecologist Jacopo Cerri of the University of Sassari, an author of the study. The findings also suggest Italian wolves “have a more complex ecology and diet than previously imagined,” he says. Over the past 40 years, researchers estimate the number of wolves in Italy has grown to more than 3000—a trend that has displeased some farmers and hunters who see the animals as a threat to livestock and game. Some wolves have moved into urban and semiurban areas, where they have learned to feast on a variety of rodents, including invasive coypu, or nutria, a wetland species introduced to Italy for its fur. But people often consider rodents to be pests and turn to chemical poisons, sometimes illegally, to kill them. Researchers have long known these rodenticides, including bromadiolone and brodifacoum, which can cause fatal internal bleeding, can quickly move up the food chain and accumulate in predators that ...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news