Study of wolf diet in anthropized areas in the province of Rome

The wolf, a species that once threatened extinction in Italy, has shown significant expansion in recent years. This development makes it imperative to adopt management plans based on solid scientific evidence. In the case of the wolf, being a predator, it is particularly important to study its diet, especially in contexts characterized by the presence of human activities.

This project, funded by the Institute of Applied Ecology and carried out in collaboration with the “Charles Darwin” Department of Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Rome La Sapienza, aims to characterize the diet of the wolf through the analysis of DNA “remains” of prey present in wolf feces. The samples, analyzed at the CNR-IRET molecular biology and evolutionary genomics laboratory in Montelibretti, will be used to precisely define which species are preyed upon by wolves in anthropized areas of the province of Rome.