Wolf Found Abandoned in Skopje Exposes North Macedonia's Wild Animal Rehabilitation Gap
SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina - A young wolf discovered in a Skopje parking lot wearing a chain leash has thrown a spotlight on a persistent institutional failing in North Macedonia: the country has no adequate facility to rehabilitate wild animals that have been kept illegally as pets or rescued from injury.
The wolf was found last month in Kozle, a residential neighbourhood of the North Macedonian capital, in a parking lot near the home of Tina Mickovska, a long-time associate and spokesperson for Skopje Zoo. Police had already secured the animal - tying it to a pole - by the time Mickovska came downstairs. The wolf was subsequently transferred to Skopje Zoo, where it began a period of mandatory quarantine. As of last Monday, that 30-day quarantine period had elapsed.
Despite clearing quarantine, the animal's situation remains unresolved. Zoo officials say the wolf cannot be placed with the other wolves at Skopje Zoo, and no more suitable habitat has been identified. The animal is likely to remain in isolation for considerably longer.
Mickovska said the young male wolf had arrived malnourished. Since then it has received veterinary treatment, been cleared of parasites, and is now being fed in accordance with European wolf nutrition guidelines. Its behaviour, however, reflects what are believed to have been its conditions before rescue.
"Most likely he had been chained up all the time, because he only reacts to the sound of the chain. Unfortunately, it still cannot adjust. Being in a larger space is strange for him now," Mickovska told BIRN, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.
The wolf is believed to have been abandoned by its owner shortly before it was found. Police attended the scene but the owner has not been identified. The chain leash found on the animal was taken as evidence of prior captive ownership.
Keeping wild animals as pets is illegal under North Macedonian law. But the case has laid bare the absence of any established rehabilitation infrastructure for animals confiscated or rescued under such circumstances. When a wild animal is removed from illegal captivity or requires emergency care following injury, North Macedonian authorities currently have no designated centre equipped to house and treat it with a view to long-term welfare or, where possible, eventual release.
The consequence, as illustrated by the Skopje wolf, is that the burden falls on facilities such as Skopje Zoo - institutions designed for display and conservation, not acute rehabilitation. Staff have had to adapt care protocols to address an animal with deeply ingrained behaviours stemming from a life of captivity. The quarantine room where the wolf is housed is expected to serve as its home indefinitely, absent a policy response from North Macedonian authorities or the identification of a more appropriate facility.
BIRN, which covers environmental governance and rule-of-law issues across the Western Balkans, reported the case as part of its broader scrutiny of wildlife protection enforcement. The Skopje wolf is not an isolated episode but an illustration of a structural gap: legislation banning the keeping of wild animals as pets exists on the books, but the state infrastructure required to receive and care for those animals when the law is actually enforced does not
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