Roughly translated by TWIN Observer
News P4 Varmland
A new research report from the Swedish Agricultural University shows that the increasing Swedish wolf population does not have much effect on other animals in the Swedish forests.
The main reason for this is that we humans manage both the animals and plants. Håkan Sand at SLU is one of the researchers behind the study where they compare the Swedish wolf population to that of America’s national parks:
“The single most important player as we see here from what it looks like in Yellowstone and other national parks it is a species called Homo sapiens”, says Håkan Sand, associate professor and researcher at SLU.
In other countries with a growing wolf population which has been possible to see how other carnivore either compete with the wolf and the decrease in number, or benefit from of the wolf there, either by getting free meal when they eat the remains of wolf prey, or by wolf they eat less predatory natural enemies.
The SLU’s research suggests is that in Sweden we can expect less these kinds of effects and it is man’s involvement in two important areas, hunting and forestry, which is crucial.
By race, we make both the wolf and its major prey, moose, and which reduced moose hunting in areas with increased numbers of wolves. Forestry in turn means that the moose is favored by more greens to eat.
However, Håkan Sand, revealing the winner, or rather a number of winners, benefiting from a larger wolf population, and these are the animals that eat of it as the wolf leaves behind. For even if there are no more moose carcasses in the woods, so they are spread out over time, outside the hunting season.
The beneficiaries are wolverines, foxes, ravens …
“Goshawk, eagles, raccoon and a number of other bird species, which are fairly frequent visitors to these carcasses. A new resource is created, which did not exist before,” says Håkan Sand.
Lars Broström