How I allowed intuition to guide me
29.6.2017, Šelmy.cz
Today, the weather is finally warmer which suits me nicely. Over the next couple of days, I'll be monitoring signs of large carnivores in the western part of the Ore Mountains (Krušné hory). I finish loading last few things, including my dog Bakly, into my car and we set off to explore new exciting corners of our mountains.
On the way, when I'm passing through some of my favourite places which I often visit, something tells me to stop - I decide to take a short walk. I'm not in a hurry; as usual, my plans are flexible, giving me a chance to follow my intuition - like today. This is an area where I spent many winter days without seeing as much as a hare. That's why I'm quite surprised when, after just a few meters, I spot two small roe deer and not long afterwards, an impressive doe crosses our path. Bakly too seems rather confused. To see the place suddenly teeming with life makes me happy. A new animal trail, which certainly hasn't been here two weeks ago, is another promising sign. A reason to spend here more time and along the way check the camera trap installed nearby. Another new trail leads right to it.
Once there, I take the memory card out and insert it in my phone to check a couple of images. They confirm that the forest is now full of wildlife. Over the last three weeks, the camera took more pictures than in preceding two months. There are videos of animals too, which I always enjoy watching, and so I settle down on a large rock and marvel at the miracles of nature. Without warning, a wolf runs across my screen. My heart nearly stops beating. But the image is gone in a flash and I try to calm myself down: surely, I have reached the recordings of my last visit and the animal in the footage was just my Bakly. I press replay... No, this really isn't Bakly! It is a magnificent wild wolf!
I keep replaying those short moments and I cry like a baby with an immense inexplicable happiness - the same I felt when, after three weeks of desperate searching, I found my lost Bakly. Several dozens of viewings later, my heart starts beating at an almost normal rate and I move on to the next video - WOLF again! And once more in the following recording. It is posing beautifully, sniffing the air, standing on the very same rock where I'm sitting just now. The feeling is beyond description. Without second hesitation, I decided to stay in the area and search it thoroughly for any more signs of rare carnivores. My furry helper finds two old cadavers but that's all. The wolves just wanted to let us know they are here and that our monitoring efforts in the Ore Mountains are not in vain.
ŠTĚPÁNKA KADLECOVÁ
The project TRANSGREEN (DTP1-187-3.1-TRANSGREEN) is co-funded by the European Union through the Interreg Danube Transnational Programme (DTP), Priority 3 - Better connected and energy responsible Danube region, Specific objective - Support environmentally-friendly and safe transport systems and balanced accessibility of urban and rural areas.
