Iberian Wolf

Iberian Wolf: Species Facts

Range & Habitat

The Iberian wolf, Canis lupus signatus, is the subspecies of grey wolf of the Iberian Peninsula. A 2017 genetic study confirmed its distinctiveness from other wolf populations and described it as a relic of the wolf population once widespread in Europe and a reservoir of unique genetic diversity of the grey wolf.^[8]

Spain's second coordinated national wolf census, carried out between 2021 and 2024 by the regional governments with national coordination by MITECO and published in June 2025, counted 333 breeding packs. Most of the population lives in Castilla y León, Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria; the Basque Country, Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha, La Rioja and Extremadura are territories of expansion with very few packs. No stable packs were detected in Aragón or Catalonia, where only occasional wolves have been recorded.^[2]

Extremadura: in 2024 a breeding wolf pack was detected in Extremadura for the first time in decades. MITECO says the packs are expanding mostly at the edges of the species' stable range, towards the east and south-east, especially along the borders of Castilla y León with Extremadura, Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha, La Rioja and the Basque Country.^[2]

Pack life. A technical report of the Junta de Extremadura from 2000, summarised by Spain's Ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo) in 2020, describes the wolf as an opportunistic, generalist predator that lives wherever it finds food but prefers remote areas rich in wild ungulates; it lives in hierarchical packs of 5 to 10 animals with home ranges of 100–500 km², is usually nocturnal, and its young disperse with erratic movements that are sometimes very long.^[7]

Diet. In a recently recolonised area of central Spain, a study of 671 scats collected between 2017 and 2021 found that wolves fed far more on wild ungulates (82 % occurrence) than on domestic ones (18 %), with wild boar (44 %) and roe deer (35 %) the most consumed and positively selected prey.^[9]

Earlier figures, for the record: the previous national census, for 2012–2014, recorded 297 packs, so the 2021–2024 figure is about 12 % higher. In Extremadura, according to the Junta's 2000 report, the last stable populations survived into the 1990s in the Sierra de San Pedro; the last large pack, of nine wolves, was followed by the region's environmental agents between 1985 and 1987 near Alburquerque (Badajoz).^[2][7]

Threats

Persecution. The Junta de Extremadura's 2000 report, as summarised by the Ombudsman, says that a century ago the wolf occupied much of Extremadura and was common, but persecution drove it to extinction there at the end of the 20th century; the last wolves of the Sierra de San Pedro were gradually eliminated illegally, the last she-wolf was killed by a vehicle in 1989 and the last male was killed illegally by poachers in 1993. The same report names human persecution, through poisoning and poaching, as the main threats where the wolf still survives in Spain and Portugal.^[7]

Conflict with livestock. MITECO's 2022 national strategy for the wolf puts the emphasis on minimising the conflict between wolves and extensive livestock farming through preventive measures. In central Spain, the diet study above concluded that keeping wild ungulates abundant and diverse may help reduce attacks on livestock and conservation conflict.^[6][9]

A population still short of long-term viability. MITECO notes that 333 packs is below the 500 that scientists consider necessary to secure the species' genetic viability in the long term.^[2]

Return of hunting. MITECO says the census period coincided with special protection for the wolf throughout Spain, which undoubtedly contributed to the improvement, but that the recent change in the law has led several regions to announce they will resume hunting the species: in June 2025 it reported that at least nine of the 41 wolves planned for the 2025/2026 season had already been killed in Cantabria, and that Asturias would authorise the removal of 53 wolves until 31 March 2026.^[2]

Conservation Status & Work

Canis lupus: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (global assessment of the species, published in 2026). That category describes the grey wolf as a species across its whole world range. It is not the status of the Iberian wolf as a subspecies, nor of the wolves of Spain or Extremadura.^[1]

In Spain, the wolf has no threat category in the Catálogo Español de Especies Amenazadas: it has been in the Listado de Especies Silvestres en Régimen de Protección Especial (LESRPE), the national list of specially protected wild species under Real Decreto 139/2011. Until 2021 only the populations south of the Duero were on the List; Orden TED/980/2021 (BOE, 21 September 2021) added all Spanish wolf populations from the following day. Ley 1/2025 (BOE, 2 April 2025) then rewrote the entry so that only the populations south of the Duero remain on the List, and the consolidated text of Real Decreto 139/2011 published by the BOE (last updated 19 October 2026) lists the wolf for the populations «Sur del Duero». Extremadura lies south of the Duero.^[3][4][5][2]

The same Ley 1/2025 adds that, if the EU Habitats Directive changes the protection of the wolf populations south of the Duero by moving them to its annex of species whose taking in the wild may be subject to management measures, Real Decreto 139/2011 will automatically be amended to remove them from the List. For wolves on the List, culling and capture follow the exceptions regime of article 61 of Ley 42/2007, and the law allows exceptional authorisations also to be justified on the grounds of the efficiency of the production system.^[4]

At EU level, Directive (EU) 2025/1237, adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 17 June 2025, entered into force on 14 July 2025 and moved the wolf from Annex IV to Annex V of the Habitats Directive. As a consequence, according to the European Commission, EU law now allows management measures regarding wolves, on certain conditions.^[10]

In Extremadura, the wolf was included in the Regional Catalogue of Threatened Species in 2001. In 2020 the regional government told the Ombudsman that it had no evidence of a stable wolf presence in the region and would not yet approve a recovery plan, but that it surveyed the areas bordering Ávila and Salamanca every year and would draft and approve the plan once a pack was detected. The Ombudsman's suggestion to start the plan was recorded as rejected.^[7]

Coexistence. The Strategy for the Conservation and Management of the Wolf and its Coexistence with Rural Activities, approved by Spain's Sectoral Conference on the Environment in 2022, replaced the strategy in force since 2005. It is a guidance framework for the regional recovery and management plans rather than a binding regulation, and it includes criteria for MITECO to distribute funds to the regions for livestock protection measures and compensation for damage, and a protocol for coordinated removals under the exceptions regime.^[6][2]

Monitoring. The 2022 strategy recommends updating the national census at least every six years, alongside the six-yearly report on the species' conservation status that Spain sends to the European Commission under the Habitats Directive; MITECO says the 2021–2024 census will serve to establish whether that status is favourable or unfavourable under EU criteria.^[2]