STOCKHOLM (AFP) – Hunters shot dead 20 wolves in Sweden on Saturday on the first day of the country's first authorised wolf hunt in 45 years, according to a toll issued by Swiss media.
The Swedish environment authority had issued permits for 27 of the animals to be killed between January 2 and February 15 in five central and southwestern regions: 10 percent of the Sweden's entire wolf population.
Parliament decided in October to limit the wolf population to a maximum of 210 and 20 packs for the next five years.
The wolf population has grown steadily from near zero in the 1970s and poses a problem for farmers, who lose livestock in attacks. They are also increasingly seen in urban areas including suburbs of Stockholm.
Sheep farmer Kenneth Holmstrom told the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter that he had lost 32 sheep in 2005 in just two wolf attacks.
"The wolf has the right to exist in the forests and in the fields but it must be better controlled," he said.
"It does not have a natural enemy and it multiplies quickly."
Swedish conservation groups have objected the hunt violates European Union legislation on species and habitats.
There were about 150 wolves in Sweden in 2005. The number rose to between 182 and 217 last winter and more cubs produced since then, according to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
Sweden culls its resurgent wolves
BBC News 2 Jan 10;
Swedish hunters have begun culling wolves for the first time in 45 years after parliament ruled that numbers needed to be reduced again.
More than half the quota of 27 may have died on the first day alone with nine shot dead in Dalarna and up to nine killed in Varmland, Swedish radio says.
Hunters have until 15 February to complete the cull, which will leave Sweden with an estimated 210 wolves.
Some 10,000 hunters were reported to be planning to take part in the hunt.
Hunting in the county of Dalarna was halted as the county's individual quota was nine wolves.
Varmland's quota of nine "may also have been filled", the radio reported later on Saturday.
'Five injured'
In Dalarna, hunters reportedly injured another five wolves.
Every time a hunter shoots and hits a wolf he has to report it to the county authorities, so they can keep track of the local cull.
Earlier, hunters insisted there were measures in place to prevent them shooting too many.
"There's a lot of regulation, hunters have to check the quota every hour," Gunnar Gloersson, of the Swedish Hunters Association, told Swedish radio.
Nevertheless, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation was critical of the decision to proceed with the cull, saying it was against EU legislation as the Swedish wolf population had not reached a healthy level.
A formal complaint was to be issued to the EU Commission, Swedish radio said.
The hunt is timed to end before the mating season, which begins in mid-February.
Snow vital
Wolves were hunted to near extinction in southern Scandinavia until a hunting ban was imposed in the 1970s.
Sweden and Norway have worked together to reintroduce the species to the forests along their border. When Norway culled some wolves in 2001, saying the population had spread too far, Sweden lodged a protest.
But the Swedish parliament recently decided there should be at most 210 wolves in Sweden.
Michael Schneider of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency says that was the level last year, and since then more than 20 pairs of wolves have had pups.
"We have to remove this increase to keep the population at this level," he said.
Mr Gloersson, of the hunting association, said: "We have a lot of problems with wolves - in reindeer areas, with livestock, and for hunters they kill our valuable dogs."
"Since they came back we have to live with them, but we have to keep their numbers down."
He said the success of the cull would depend on the weather.
"The only easy way to hunt wolves is if we have snow, so the hunters can track them on the snow. If we don't have snow I don't think we'll even be able to reach the quota of 27 wolves," he said.
Sweden's cull of wolves nears its quota
Yahoo News 3 Jan 10;
STOCKHOLM (AFP) – Hunters have only a few more wolves to kill to complete their quota in the first cull of the animal in Sweden for 45 years, according to a tally compiled by the press Sunday.
Another three wolves were shot Sunday after some 20 killed on Saturday, all but meeting the target of 27 kills set for the hunt, which was meant to run between January 2 and February 15.
The controversial cull, condemned by the country's ecology movements, was authorised after parliament voted in October to limit the wolf population to 210 in 20 packs over the next five years.
Farmers had complained of attacks on their livestock and wolves had been reported in the outskirts of some cities, including Stockholm.
"This is a sad day for all those who care about nature," said Mikael Karlsson, president of Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.
Wolves, which had virtually disappeared from Sweden in the 1970s, thrived after being reintroduced there.
Criticism soars as Sweden's wolf hunt ends
Marc Preel Yahoo News 5 Jan 10;
STOCKHOLM (AFP) – Sweden's first wolf hunt in 45 years came to an end Tuesday after hunters met their quota of 27 kills in just four days, as ecologists blasted the hunt as rushed and cruel and slammed the government's decision to allow the cull.
The final two wolves of the quota were killed in central Sweden on Tuesday, bringing to an end the first wolf hunt since 1964 as a number of hunters reported receiving anonymous death threats.
Parliament decided in October to limit the country's wolf population to 210 animals for the next five years.
The cull was meant to run between January 2 and February 15, but hunters killed 20 wolves on the first day, sparking the ire of animal rights activists and local officials.
"I think the hunt was carried out very quickly, there were too many kills all at once," said Stig-Aake Svenson, head of the local branch of the environmental agency in the central Dalarna region where hunters killed 10 wolves instead of the nine allotted to the region.
"And across the entire country, seven wolves were first wounded before they were killed, and that's a very high number. These are problems that need to be investigated ahead of a possible wolf hunt next year," he told AFP.
Some 12,000 hunters had been granted permits to take part in the hunt, a number environmentalists said was out of proportion to the total of 27 authorised kills in five central regions.
They also criticised the lack of coordination between the regions.
"The hunt was totally out of control, the quota was even exceeded in Dalarna, and thousands of hunters were allowed to take part in the kill," lamented Mikael Karlsson, the head of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) who has filed a complaint against Sweden with the European Commission.
The SNCC claimed the hunt violated European Union legislation on species and habitats.
"This hunt was aimed at pleasing the loudmouthed hunters" who have been calling for a wolf hunt for years, Karlsson said.
But Torbjoern Loevbom of the Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management said the criticism was "exaggerated".
"The hunt went well for the most part, apart from the one wolf too many that was killed in Dalarna. The cull was completed quickly because the snow made it easier for us," he said.
A fresh snowfall makes it easier for hunters to follow the animal's tracks.
Several hunters have filed police complaints after receiving anonymous death threats, the Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management said.
The Swedish government has also been the target of heavy criticism, in particular Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren whose image as a nature lover has taken a blow.
"The hunt turns to Carlgren," headlined an editorial in tabloid Aftonbladet, the country's most widely read newspaper.
The minister "says the hunt will put an end to the inbreeding in the Swedish wolf population ... That's of course nonsense," it said.
Wolves had virtually disappeared from Sweden in the 1970s. They have thrived since being reintroduced but suffer from the effects of inbreeding because they all descend from the same handful of animals that were introduced.
The government plans to release some 20 new wolves into the wild by 2014 to broaden their gene pool and improve their health.
"If the environment minister's real aim was to combat the wolves' heart, back and kidney problems then the hunt would have been organised differently," the paper wrote.
Parliament's decision to allow the wolf hunt was aimed at increasing public acceptance of the predators.
The animal's presence is controversial in the Nordic country as domestic and farm animals are increasingly attacked by wolves, which have been sighted recently near residential areas, including near the capital Stockholm.
There were between 182 and 217 wolves in Sweden last winter, the Environmental Protection Agency said, noting that new litters had been born since then.