Eco-Wolf Trail – Map

The “Eco-Wolf Trail”, a partnership between the Eco-Schools project of Vila Verde Basic School, the Municipality of Vila Verde, and the international LIFE WILD WOLF Project, aims to showcase the relationship between local communities and the Iberian wolf—a nationally threatened predator still present in the mountainous areas of northern Vila Verde.

The trail follows paths historically used by both people and wolves, running through two characteristic mountain villages, Gondomar and Bezeguimbra, within the territory of one of the packs in northwest Portugal, the Vila Verde pack. Its primary objective is to highlight the natural heritage (fauna, flora, geology, and hydrology), cultural heritage (built, religious, and ethnographic), and the lifestyle of the Iberian wolf within a rural landscape shaped by human activity.

The area traversed by the trail is frequented by wolves. Visitors may, with luck, catch a fleeting glimpse of this predator or commonly observe wolf scats at path intersections, which serve as territorial markers and a means of communication among pack members.

The trail features 16 stations, grouped into three main themes—“Villages and Landscape,” “Agro-Pastoral Heritage,” and “Forests and Scrublands”—designed to interpret different aspects of the landscape and heritage, and their relationship with the Iberian wolf.