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On one of many journeys looking for traces
Tracking the group
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Anabela Moedas and Pedro Alarcão are both journalists. They have worked for various newspapers and magazines and have produced several journalistic items relating to themes about the environment and conservation of nature. They have regularly collaborated with Forum Ambiente (Environmental Forum) magazine and have worked with Revista Ozono magazine since its first issue. In 1999 they decided to broaden their horizons and started a long-term project that radically changed the scope of their lives. In November 1999 they began a project that would only end when they had the necessary information and images needed to produce a book about the life of a family of Iberian Wolves. At that time, with the help of the biologist Francisco Alvares, they selected a wolf-pack to study. Having done this, they acquired a base from which to work in the National Park of Peneda Gerês (Parque Nacional da Peneda Gerês) and started field-work at the beginning of 2000. Following the life of a family of Iberian Wolves was an exciting venture from the start. Discovering where they lived, finding out about their habits, finding out how they moved through their territory and finally seeing their cubs compensated them for the hours and days of waiting. After watching the pack for seven months, they got their first opportunity to photograph some of its members – a female with three cubs. However, good news doesn’t last long and on the first weekend of the hunting season one of the wolves was shot. The death of one of the elements of the pack resulted in the dispersal of the group and for several months neither Anabela nor Pedro saw any signs of the pack. In spite of all that had happened, the first year’s balance was positive. They had learnt about the pack’s habits and where they lived. It had not been possible to approach the wolves closely enough to obtain good images. The winter months served to consolidate information and to study new ways and methods of approaching the pack as closely as they wished. During the following spring, Anabela and Pedro were in the hills of Peneda Gerês. The first few hours of their silent wait were soon rewarded. That day, Pedro returned with a wonderful photo of a young wolf. Hundreds of hours of observation gave rise to various photographs, but they still did not have the necessary images to produce a book with high quality imagery. They also needed more, and better, photographic equipment which was very expensive. In 2003 Anabela and Pedro received an invitation from RTP (a Portuguese radio and TV programme) to produce a programme about their work. This was a unique opportunity to inform the general public about the life of the Iberian Wolf as well as the difficulties encountered while documenting its story. Pedro and Anabela didn’t hesitate. Pedro exchanged his camera for a video camera and got down to work. During the following two years, the two journalists continued to follow the habits and behaviour of the wolf-pack and concentrated their efforts on getting the images that were featured in the report ‘The secret life of Wolves’ which was shown on RTP in February 2005. While following the pack in the hills of Peneda, a project began that became a life-ambition. Anabela and Pedro observed the day-to-day life of this wolf family for five years. Now, finally, having lived all this time in the Serra da Peneda, they finally obtained the equipment they needed to obtain the images required for their book. This will be vital in reaching their objectives in the coming years. Other objectives will be helping to expose the wolf to the world in all possible ways; educating the local population to look at the wolf with different eyes; educating them to the fact that they should not be afraid of the wolf and that it is part of our history; contributing to the improvement of this important specie’s image – a specie which has been subject to hundreds of years of persecution.
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