One wolf responsible for one third of sheep killings

Sheep wolf killing tunnelsSheep with lambs . Photo: Norway Today Media

One wolf responsible for nearly one third of this year’s sheep killings

One wolf is responsible for one third of the registered predator damage to sheep in Norway so far this year. The actual Wolf killed 225 sheep, according to the Environmental Authority.

 

A total of 780 sheep are confirmed killed by predators as of August 1, statistics from the directorate reveals. This applies to cadavers or damage that has been reported to the Norwegian Public Service Authority (SNO) and has been confirmed by them.

The damage made by wolf has increased, while the number has either decreased or is stable for bear, wolverines, lynx and eagle. In total, there has also been an increase in damages compared to the same period last year; even so the losses are lower than in the last twelve years, according to the directorate.

Difficult to guard against

Wolves accounts for 379 of the reported incidents, of which 225 are attributed to a single wolf within the Hadeland / Toten area. According to the directorate, this was a young bitch that came from Sweden and has since been culled.

– That roaming animals do harm is hard to safeguard. Wolves can roam over long distances, and when the sheep are let loose, we do not know where potential harm doers can appear, says Director in the Environment Directorate, Ellen Hambro .

Bears

The losses accounted to bears have been historically low over the past four years and so far this year has continued to decline compared with last year, while sheep lost to wolverines to date is the lowest since SNO took over the registration in 2002. These numbers are uncertain as it has to be taken into consideration that 80 percent of wolverine killings will not be logged before after August 1st.

The final overview will be ready by the end of December. The county officials then have processed all applications for compensation due to predators.

One in two thousand

There are registered 804,133 adult sheep in Norway as of 2017, which mean that less than 1 in one in two thousand sheep is confirmed to be killed by predators this year. Between 5 to 10 per cent die every year from other causes, like eating poisonous plants.

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today