Roughly translated by TWIN Observer
DALSLAND–After the last wolf inventory in Dalsland the County Administrative Board’s assessment that the two wolf pairs have disappeared without trace.
“The risk is high that they were shot illegally,” feared Erold Coleman, a policeman who worked with wildlife crime in many years.
Even Nelly Grönberg of the provincial government has the same theory as to where the missing wolves have gone, writes Bohusläningen .
“All research shows that the single most limiting factor for the Scandinavian wolf population growth is illegal hunting,” says Nelly Grönberg.
She is the inventory manager at the County Administrative Board of Västra Götaland.
“We have to discuss the issue of illegal hunting more than anyone dares to do today,” she says.
But illegal hunting is just a theory. The County Administrative Board of Västra Götaland wants more resources, in order to get to the bottom of what happens when the wolves disappear without a trace.
By the government’s last inventory of the number of predators in Västra Götaland shows that one pair of wolves from Laxarby are missing. The inventory is partly based on fixed cameras in the forests, tips from the public, snow tracking and scat droppings.
“We have seen during the winter territorial marking from two wolves there, and interpreted this as recently as January of this year, as they were in the company. But since we have not seen two individuals together,” says Nelly Grönberg.
In April, they have found small amounts of wolf droppings in some places in the area.
“The conclusion is that there are wolves in the area, but the status is unknown. We have seen a maverick in Svartedalen and territory marking individuals around Dals Ed, as well as an unknown number of other wolves.
“Pairs from Kynnefjäll and Kroppefjäll with puppies 2014 are gone. There may be several reasons for that family formation disappears. But in these cases we do not know which. Wolves who marked territory disappear not only, but we believe that it happened them something like a traffic accident, illness, injury, or illegal hunting,” says Nelly Grönberg.
Stig Strandberg in Uddevalla is an experienced hunter and was for many years predator manager responsible for the Hunters’ Association of the West. He is still in the Hunters Association predator group for Western Sweden and has a picture of the situation.
“There is of course nothing that defends illegal hunting, if it would now take place. But I understand it if annoyance is high in the district. It is decided that predator management can not be implemented, as a result of all appeals from people who want more predators,” he says.
Anita Bergstedt at the provincial government is also working with predator issues in the county.
“For the authorities, there should be at least 300 wolves in Sweden. Many are inbred and every five years need to get new blood from Finland or Russia, to discourage inbreeding,” she says.
But the authorities see no value in having more wolves than decided, in order to maintain a long- term viability of the population.
“It is strange that the turnover is so great for wolves. We therefore have more resources, to find out if there is a natural explanation,” says Anita Bergstedt.
ULF BLOMGREN