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tahir
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
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Location: Essex
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 Posted: Mon Jan 24, 05 6:12 pm Post subject: Norway to kill 25% of its wolves |
 
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By Alex Kirby BBC News website environment correspondent
The Norwegian government has decided to kill five of the country's grey wolves - a quarter of the entire population.
It says the decision is necessary to protect domestic livestock, but one campaign group has condemned the cull.
WWF-Norway says two wolves have been shot already, one of them from a pack which has not been targeted and which it fears may now not manage to survive.
Wolves are protected in Norway, and are listed as critically endangered, and WWF says many people oppose the cull.
The decision to kill five animals out of the 20 remaining in Norway was taken by the nature directorate, which advises the government. WWF-Norway is calling for an immediate halt to the hunt.
Survival 'at risk'
Its head, Rasmus Hansson, said: "If the Norwegian environment minister does not stop this hunt, he will have the dubious honour of allowing the regular hunting of a nationally endangered species.
"The culling of 20-30% of a population this size is a serious threat to the survival of this species in Norway.
"This practice is contrary to internationally accepted standards for wildlife management. No other country that I know of has such an aggressive policy towards its wolves."
The Norwegian parliament decided last May the country should sustain at least three family packs of wolves.
Packs can range in size from two adults to 10 or more animals covering several generations. WWF says the current hunt will reduce the number of packs to two at most.
Mr Hansson told the BBC: "One wolf from the pack to be culled was shot on 15 January, and another female from a different pack on 21 January.
"We don't know the exact size of the targeted pack, because we don't know whether it produced any cubs last summer. If it did, they will be left orphaned.
Steady decline
"Now, in all likelihood, by killing the wrong animal they've ruined another pack. The animal was an alpha female, so breeding may be affected and the pack could dissolve."
WWF says there were an estimated 50-80 wolves in the southern part of Norway and Sweden in 2001, consisting of several families.
That year Norway approved the culling of eight out of its 25 wolves, leaving 20 today, because the target was not met.
A recent study of the wider Scandinavian wolf population concluded there were 120 at the most.
Mr Hansson said: "There is a serious risk of genetic degradation in this population because of its small size. A genetically healthy population... should have at least 800 individuals."
He told the BBC: "The cull is meant to protect sheep. Sheep farming occupies 90% of Norway's territory.
"We have 250-300,000 moose and 30,000 reindeer. In that perspective 800 wolves shouldn't be too many, though we've never suggested it - it's just a biological fact."
Story from BBC NEWS:
https://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/4194963.stm
Published: 2005/01/21 17:28:40 GMT |
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jema
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tahir
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Gertie
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tahir
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| Posted: Mon Jan 24, 05 6:55 pm Post subject: |
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Looks like they've been doing it for a while:
Sunday, 11 February, 2001, 20:46 GMT
Snow hampers Norway wolf cull
A heavily-criticised cull of Norwegian grey wolves has begun in south-east Norway, amid fierce protests from environmentalists and alleged death threats to hunters.
I will stay here for as long as it takes ... [we are] determined to stop a massacre
A group of 23 hunters plan to kill a pack of nine wolves, out of the Scandinavian population of 100, which are said to have killed large numbers of sheep.
Their first day of hunting was hampered by bad weather and no wolves were spotted.
The species is endangered in Europe but the Norwegian authorities have given hunters until April to kill the animals, with helicopter back-up if necessary.
Conservationists have denounced the cull and the hunters, travelling on skis and snowmobiles and armed with rifles and shotguns, were confronted by anti-hunt protesters who had camped out in the forest nearby.
The hunters took no notice and maintain they will stay out in the forests for a week at a time, although protesters say they will not go home until the hunt is over, despite temperatures as low as -30°C (-22°F).
"I will stay here for as long as it takes," declared Svein Sorli, 27, who said he was "determined to stop a massacre."
Environmentalists hope a court on Tuesday will rule the hunt illegal.
Telephone threats
"The hunters have received anonymous telephone threats," said Svein Norberg, spokesman of the Directorate of Nature Management which is overseeing the cull.
On Sunday, hunters unrolled almost 3km (two miles) of bright yellow and red tape in the pine forests, hoping to direct the wolves towards sharp-shooters.
The authorities in neighbouring Sweden, which co-operates with Norway to manage the wolf population along the common border, are vehemently opposed to the plan.
Threat to locals
But the Norwegian Government says wolf packs are growing too fast and blames them for killing more than 600 sheep last year in the area around Koppang, 200km (125 miles) north of the capital, Oslo.
It is a difficult job - wolves are smart animals and have good instincts
Lead hunter Leonhard Mikalsen
It says the wolves in question must be shot because they have moved into a valley outside the zone designated for them.
"The wolf has been at our nurseries, it's been in our barns, it kills livestock right up to our houses and it is undermining deer hunting," said Erling Myhre, mayor of nearby Rendalen.
The identities of most marksmen have been kept secret because of fears for their safety.
Numbers row
Wolves were hunted to near extinction in southern Scandinavia until a hunting ban was imposed in the 1970s.
The Norwegian authorities, whose original plans to kill 20 wolves were scaled down amid public outcry, say there are now about 12 families, or 120 wolves, in the area.
The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) recently put at between 51 and 80 the number of wolves in the area, far short of the 500 it says are necessary for stocks to be viable. |
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Seems utterly criminal in these so called enlightened days.
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