Four Weeks. Wild Neighbors.
Wolves have returned to central Italy. Shepherds are negotiating what that means. In four weeks you'll study the ecology of rewilding where predators and pastoralists share the same hills, forests, and dawn.
From Chianti farms to Apennine national parks, you'll survey wild boar and roe deer impacts on vineyards and learn bear and wolf monitoring techniques with park staff. In Abruzzo, you'll canoe Lake Barrea while roe deer wade its shallows and watch for the rare Marsican brown bear from a mountain viewpoint. The whole month feeds a short film on rewilding you produce for public awareness.
What You'll Do
Wild Boar & Deer Impact Surveys
Survey wild boar and roe deer damage on Chianti farms, assessing impacts on vineyards and olive groves through questionnaire methods and field observation.
Predator Tracking in the Apennines
Learn population monitoring techniques alongside Apennine National Park staff, tracking predator signs through ancient beech and fir forests.
Rewilding Film Production
Produce a short documentary on rewilding, combining field footage, farmer interviews, and conservation analysis for public audiences.
Field Sites
Your fieldwork spans national parks, highland pastures, and wildlife corridors across central Italy's rewilding frontier.
Foreste Casentinesi National Park
Ancient beech and fir forests sheltering wolf packs, studied alongside the park's own wolf researchers.
Chianti & Maremma Farmland
Survey wild boar and deer impacts on vineyards and study the Guardian Dogs coexistence project.
Abruzzo & the Central Apennines
Canoe Lake Barrea while roe deer wade the shallows, and monitor bear and wolf alongside park scientists.
Wolves Are Back. The Shepherds Are Counting.
Wolves have recolonized forests that farmers abandoned a generation ago. Bears range through the Apennines. Griffon vultures wheel over the central ridges, flagship of the comeback work of Rewilding Apennines, Rewilding Europe, and local authorities; students visit the feeding site where carrion from local farms sustains the colony. Shepherds who graze livestock on the same pastures are deciding what coexistence actually costs, in guardian dogs deployed and in livestock lost. Students survey wild boar and roe deer pressure on Chianti farms with questionnaires and field observation, help park staff set up camera traps and classify the data they capture, and interview farmers about the predators moving back into their hills. The fieldwork becomes a short film on rewilding for public audiences.
Learn by Doing
One course spans predator ecology, human-wildlife conflict, and EU biodiversity policy. You'll combine ecological surveys with shepherd interviews, hear how feasibility studies could return the cinereous and bearded vulture to these mountains, and end with a rewilding documentary you produce yourself.
Course
One field course exploring the ecology and human dimensions of rewilding in central Italy.
Studies wild boar and wolf impacts on Chianti farms, Marsican bear monitoring in Abruzzo, wetland conservation with the WWF at Orbetello Lagoon, and the Guardian Dogs coexistence project.
View Syllabus (PDF)Spend Your Summer Tracking Wolves
Four weeks of predator ecology and rewilding research in Italy's central Apennines.
Dates & Costs
4 weeks, 4 credits. Financial aid and SFS scholarships available.
