Record number of wolves shot in Norway

December 8, 2013

A total of 14 wolves have been shot in Norway so far this year, more than in any year since 1949. Meanwhile, wildlife officials are investigating a possible wolf sighting near the coastal city of Sandefjord.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” exclaimed Øystein Eriksen, whose hunting team had put up a wildlife camera on Kodalveien in Sandefjord at the end of November. After seeing several foxes on the film from the camera, he was startled to see a large animal that he’s sure was a wolf come into the picture.

He turned the film over to officials at the state wildlife agency Statens Naturoppsyn. It would be unusual for a wolf to have traveled so far from the areas around the border of eastern Norway to Sweden, where most of the countries’ wolves area found.

One wolf pair, however, has established itself in Østmarka, the hills and forest on Oslo’s east side.  Officials believe there are now between 17 and 28 wolves in Norway, where there are ongoing conflicts between ranchers, who claim the wolves threaten the country’s open grazing practices, and conservationists, who have been working for years to save the wolves from extinction.

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