http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scie...environment-14533400

The article suggests that poaching (by hunters) is the reason why the population numbers have failed to reach expected levels.

It then goes on to say that lack of genetic diversity and inbreeding have caused deformities etc in the wolf population.

Could there be an elephant in the room that they have not seen?

The Swedish government had a 3 year long limit of 300 wolfes the numbers where over that alredy then the decision was taken.(the swedish wolfes are the most wathed ones outside a zoo) The official numbers are on the low side. The population has rise from 22 pairs with cubs to 28 now in 3 years(28*4-5cubs ~120 a year). With 80% of the wolfes in 3 countys its many attacs on sheeps, dogs, cats, cattle.

Now eu has made the goverment to change the decition to keep the population limited. Last year there was abuot 20 shot legaly, and of cause some illegal but the population is both growing and expanding.

A decade ago, I was invited to a reputed moose drive hunt in Sweden. In addition to the formal instructions given during the preliminary roundup, we were quietly and individually intructed afterwards to shoot any wolf seen. Although protected, wolves have the nasty habit of attacking/killing the much beloved elkhounds* (Scandinavian moose dogs).

*Here's one of them near a downed young bull :

Have not been around for a while,

actually the real data in this matter, presented WWF resently stated that poaching of wolfes have dropped from 19,6% of the population annually in thr 90`s to less than 2,5% annually after the fact that the Swedish goverment allowed for legal hunting.

We have hunted for two seasons and shot about 43 wolfes in total.

However the EU Commission has after a complaint fobidden any more regulated hunting and only select permitt hunts will be allowed this winter.

Numbervise the populations of wolfes in Sweden exceed 300 this year, we had a limit of 210 set by govermnent decision that later has been breached, in the 90´s there were around 50-60 wolfes in Sweden.

With no or little cull on the numbers this year the 300 will rise to above 340 wolfes by 2012 and over 400 by 2013.

The last 3 years in total more than 80 dogs, hunting and others have been killed by wolfes,

quite a few are actually just taken from the front or back yards by a hungry wolf.

http://www.vargreviret.com/kar...argdodade_hundar.htm

There are now a pride, Riala reviret, that has taken land that is less then 30 km from Stockholm and this group have proven very hard on dogs and have little fear of people.

Best regards Chris

"These large carnivores went extinct in Sweden in the 1970s, and the population has since re-established itself after a handful of migratory Finnish wolves took over the empty territories.

Today, all 250 or so Swedish wolves have descended from these few founding individuals.

And so the population is highly inbred and suffers from skeletal abnormalities and problems reproducing
"
The authors of http://rspb.royalsocietypublis...08/08/rspb.2011.1275
appear to take more account of their sampling methodology than they do of the effects of inbreeding on reproductive success.
http://wscinof.dreamhosters.co...oads/Asa-MexWolf.pdf suggests that sperm quality is reduced as a result.

I guess its easier to blame poachers than decreased fertility, higher infant and adult mortality rates and deformities!

Good to see you back Chris. Everything fine I hope

"Cryptic poaching " sounds to me like, we don't know what the fuck is going on, so it Must be poachers. As for the lack of genetic diversity, we sent the Yanks a lot fewer and they sure don't seem to be suffering. Maybe we could supply the Swedes with some.

Grizz

Thanks Arild,

good to be back.

Grizz- a lot of swedish wolfes are tagged and have a collar,

when the wolf loses the collar it will change radio tone,

the collar will then be retrieved.

However if collars just goes silent then that is a case of possible "illegal killing" we have decided to steer away from the term poaching within the hunting community in Sweden,

as it depics people with guns killing game illegaly.

Most wolfes, lynx and wolverines that are illegaly killed here are done in with snowmobiles and the person doing it is not a hunter.

The issue with the large predators is a huge one here and in large parts of middle Sweden, in Uppsala län, north of sweden,

the number of roe has gone from about, 1 adult roe per 50 hectars in winterpopulation to less than 1 per 1000 hectars and large parts of the län has less than 1 roe per 3000 hectars,

all this due to a large influxe of lynx.

Had it been any other form of game and one more scare in general, the outcries would have been great, not so now.

The lynxs is known as the silent killer and it sure has lived up to it´s name here in the middle of sweden.

Any how, after we have had legal hunting for wolfes and largely extended rights to shoot them as they threat livestock and dogs, the illegal killings have dropped no almost nothing.

/Chris