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Conservation | Research | Outreach
A grassroots effort to study and conserve grey wolves (Canis lupus) in Pakistan by researching their ecology, genetics, and interactions with humans.
Photo: Muddasir Riaz Malik
At a Glance
At a Glance
We are documenting wolf presence, building a non-invasive sample archive, and working with local communities to understand and implement informed conservation solutions
70+ Camera trap deployments
70+ Camera trap deployments
Collecting thousands of images representing over 15 species from southern Pakistan
100+ Depredation Reports
100+ Depredation Reports
collected from over 15 locations in the study area
100 Samples Collected
100 Samples Collected
from Sindh, Balochistan, and Southern Punjab
Wolf Presence Confirmed
Wolf Presence Confirmed
in Kirthar National Park and Hingol National Park
Project Goals
Project Goals
Genetic Samples
Genetic Samples
Samples collected in the field provide valuable insight into the diet, health, and connectivity of wildlife populations
Camera Traps
Camera Traps
Remote cameras confirm wolf presence and inform about the regional ecology with minimal disturbance to the ecosystem
Human-wildlife Coexistence
Human-wildlife Coexistence
In communities impacted by wolf depredation, awareness and livestock depredation monitoring programs build trust and inform future mitigation efforts
Building scientific capacity
Building scientific capacity
Introducing new non-invasive monitoring and genetic tools for the development of wildlife research in Pakistan
Wolves in Pakistan
New research shows Pakistan may be home to some of the most genetically diverse wolves on the planet!
Recent work has shown southern regions of Asia hold a disproportionate amount of the global diversity of gray wolves living today. This is partly because there are three main wolf lineages in the world -- the Indian, Tibetan, and Holarctic -- that are all found in Asia.
Pakistan is the hotspot for gray wolf diversity in the world because it is where all three of the world's wolf lineages converge.
Conservation Plan
The IUCN Red List Assessment for the Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) estimates that fewer than 300 Indian wolves remain in Pakistan. In addition to the threat of habitat loss, these individuals in Pakistan face unique threats of trafficking, capture from the wild, and retaliatory killings, rarely seen in the rest of the wolf's range in India.
To protect the remaining 300 Indian wolves, a coordinated conservation effort is required across the animal's range in southern Pakistan. For this, the Pakistan Wolf project has developed an Indian wolf research and recovery plan to track the return of wolves to the landscape and the framework of intervention required to allow their continued existence.
Completed
Completed
Initial surveys, local relationship building, camera deployment, and reporting streams from National Parks
In progress
In progress
Camera trap monitoring, scat sample collection, human-wildlife conflict reporting, and pre-intervention baseline atitudes
Next
Next
Complete diet composition research, genetic lineage analysis, publish results and pilot a community-led human wildlife conflict mitigation solution
The project’s roadmap begins with distribution, genetics, diet and conflict baselines; advances to breeding-area protection and village-level mitigation; and may eventually support movement research, source-population security, grazing management, prey and habitat recovery, and sustained conservation finance.
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