Nobody will ever know why Slave abandoned his family. But in the winter of 2011, the young male wolf left his home territory and began an epic trek. He had spent the first years of his life meandering through the forests of southern Slovenia, occasionally straying into Croatia. Then, as Christmas approached, he struck out towards the north, alone.Slavc was one of an estimated 4000 wolves living on the Balkan peninsula of southeastern Europe, a continent not usually known for its big, fierce predators. Twenty years ago that was quite right, but no longer. Europe -the most urbanised, industrialised and farmed continent on Earth - is now home to some 12,000 wolves, 17,000 brown bears and 9000 Eurasian lynx. To put that in perspective, there are as few as 32,000 lions left in Africa and fewer than 2000 tigers in India.
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