How many wolves does Sweden have room for?

Photo: Daniel Mott/Flickr.

Ever since Sweden lifted the ban on wolf hunting last year, we have had an intense discussion about the wolves. Last Saturday this year’s licensed hunting began, with thousands of hunters participating, and 15 wolves out of the allotted annual quota of 20 were shot in just two days. Four of these were alpha animals, of which two were marked. This has upset Swedish nature conservationists such as the organisation SSNC.

One of the wolves shot during the hunt. Photo: Länsstyrelsen.

According to official statistics there are now about 250 wolves in Sweden, and the the Riksdag has set up the goal to keep the wolf population at about 210 individuals.
Another reason brought up for licensed hunting is that the Swedish wolves suffer from inbreeding, since most of them are said to come from one single wolf couple which established itself in Sweden in the 1980:s. One idea is to bring in “fresh genes” by taking in wolves from other countries.
Those defending the hunt argues that the wolf hasn’t got any natural enemies in Sweden, and without being hunted it will soon reproduce too fast and become less and less afraid of humans. They see the risk of domestic cattle, dogs and maybe even humans getting attacked and the Swedish Hunters’ Association means that the wolf population should be less than 200 individuals.
Those against the hunt points out that Sweden has a very small wolf population in comparison to many other countries, and that killing random wolves won’t help to improve the genetic quality. In Värmland [map] anti-hunting activists tried to disturb the hunt by making noise and scaring the wolves over to the Norwegian side of the border.
Now the EU environment commissioner Janez Potocnik has joined to the hunting opponents’ side and stated that he wants to take legal action against Sweden for breaking EU environmental laws.
All this of course raises a lot of questions about biodiversity and the relation between humans and the rest of nature. Are the wolves intruding on humans’ territories, or is it infact we who intrude on theirs?