Wolf in Norrbotten Disappeared
Monday 14 apr 2003
The wolf in Norrbotten, the Laponia wolf, has disappeared. It is likely he
has been shot illegally. No signals have been heard from the radio
transmitter since last monday.
If the wolf had died of natural causes, the scientists still would have
received signals from the transmitter, TV4 Norrbotten reported.
Great effort has been put into tracking the wolf, discovered early
last year, during the last week.
At that time he was the first wolf in Norrbotten for years and he was
thought to have migrated in from Finland.
One of the saami villages had applied for a hunting permit for him
because he had killed some reindeer, but this was refused by the
authorities claiming the wolf was valuable genetically.
Since the end of last year, one or two other wolves have been seen in the
area.