'An amazing experience': carnivore enthusiast Dina Botta explains her fascination with wolves

In partnership with The European Commission
'An amazing experience': carnivore enthusiast Dina Botta explains her fascination with wolves
Copyright euronews
Copyright euronews
By Euronews
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The naturalist behind the Carnivora Dinarica project which promotes the preservation of carnivores takes Euronews on a guided tour of their habitat.

Dina Botta is Project Manager of Carnivora Dinarica and she knows the secrets of the forest.

She has spent nights in Risnjak National Park trying to capture large carnivores and install GPS devices around their necks to track them. 

She says that her job requires patience and passion. She loves lynxes, bears and especially wolves.

While giving Euronews a tour of the forest, she explained her love for the sanine carnivores.

"Once I was checking the trail camera in the national park and I was driving and I saw more and more prints of wolves present, so you see wolf scat, wolf poop, you see tracks," she said.

"I noticed where they were lying on the grass because of the smell, it was quite fresh and when I checked the camera, I saw they were just there this morning.

"And since this was August, this is the time when they have pups and I know that they were somewhere close by. I started howling and they actually howled back. I heard pups firstly and then adults, two adults.

"But the interesting thing is that they were in different directions, the pups were in front of me and the adults somewhere behind me, and then I started howling again and I heard the pups approaching. They just jumped out of the bush like 20 meters away me. I only saw them for a few seconds but it was just tremendous, an amazing experience."

"I think I'm going to talk to my grand children about it because it doesn't happen that often, and it's a kind of experience that changes a bit your life and this is why I do this."

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