The she-wolf with the collar 19.082028

Through the morning mist she descends, each pawstep measured and silent. The fog becomes her accomplice as she stalks the deer grazing in the forest clearing. In summer 2017, she moves for the first time through the upper Nonstal at the border to Deutschnonsberg in northern Italy. As a lone hunter, she must master every act of the hunt unaided. To use her strength wisely, she chooses the weak, the sick, the young. When she bites, she must immediately strike the vital points – throat, flanks, hind legs. This happens swiftly and without hesitation. She takes a young deer; the other deer panic. She drags her prey into the forest. Her photographs were captured by a wildlife camera that the wildlife monitoring team had attached to a tree close to where her first tracks were discovered. The camera reacts to motion and instantly creates a photo or video recording activated through an infrared signal. Collar 19.082028 – this strange ornament she wears – connects the research team with her through satellite signals every four hours. GPS and wildlife cameras provide the team with insights into her movements, her encounters with prey and other predators, her survival strategies, and – her success in establishing a pack. She receives the identification number WBZF001. When she appears at the same spot again some time later, she is no longer alone. She has found her mate and established her pack. Behind her, three wolf pups stumble through the tall grass. And her pack approaches the same place where she had already hunted alone. The deer graze leisurely. Dusk envelops the landscape in milky light. She sees the landscape flat and recognizes movements very precisely even in dim light. She orchestrates the hunt between herself and her mate with precision. She relies on her acute sense of smell to detect prey and assess their health condition, and her exceptional hearing that can pick up sounds from kilometers away. Her paws detect ground vibrations, helping her navigate and orient herself within her surroundings. Her young watch with intense attention as she reads the psychology of the deer. On 02.17.2020, the foresters drop the GPS collar. In the following months, the wildlife camera captures only grass, rabbits, and deer. From genetic material, it becomes clear that the she-wolf is no longer alive, as well as her mate and her young. Only one of her daughters was spotted further south of this area. She was one of the first of her kind to return to this territory. Throughout the entire time wearing the 19.082028 collar, she crossed alpine pastures where calves were kept; she never killed a calf. Her actual hunting expertise in this industrial apple-growing region was focused on red deer. Together with her mate, she would encircle a selected animal and drive it into the plantation nets, from which it could not escape.