We have successfully set a night enclosure of high electric fence on the mountain pasture »Božca« near mountain “Kobariški stol” in the Slovenian Alps. In the past months there have been several wolf attacks on livestock here and on the neighboring mountain pastures, so the local damage inspector gave the initiative to build a night enclosure for the “Drežnica” goats, a special breed of Slovenian goats, found only in this region.

The shepherd will gather the goats inside the enclosure every night till the end of the grazing season. The area surrounding the enclosure will also be monitored with automatic cameras, helping us to detect wolf presence around the pasture. Representatives from Agriculture-Forestry Institute Nova Gorica joined the Slovenia Forest Service employees when setting up of the enclosure and were educated about appropriate means of protecting livestock in alpine areas.

Traditional mountain grazing in the Alps helps to preserve the diversity of high-altitude mountain meadows and with this an important part of Slovenian tradition and environment. Large carnivores are slowly returning back to the Alpine region and with them also the issues of human-large carnivore coexistence. It is up to us to find appropriate solutions for these areas and enable coexistence of large carnivores and livestock herding in the Alps.

You can learn more about large carnivore damage prevention on https://www.varna-pasa.si/en/.