Summary of the year 2014 with wolves

One year has just passed and it is time  to sum up what the year 2014 has offered to us regarding wolves in Finland.

The year started with a rather exotic news: A wolf was found dead in a haybarn, in munincipality of Köyliö. The animal was mostly hairless, so mange was considered initially -and later confirmed- as the cause of death. The Köyliö pack was under tighter surveillance due the mange, but no other member of the pack was found dead nor required to be put down due mange.

In February the Game and Fisheries Research announced that the wolf population estimate was 140-155 wolves. If all the wolves in Finland-Russia border area would be counted to Finnish population, the amount of wolves would have been 150-170 wolves.
The amount of packs was 16 (10 in previous year) and amount of pairs was 14 (down from previous year's 19 pairs).

The wolf conversation stayed heated through the whole year. Most of the conversation revolved around controlling the wolf population, since the new wolf management plan was being assembled throughout  the year. A study had concluded at the end of year 2013 that the large predator policy was failed and needed to be revised. Thus starting the update process of wolf management plan.

Preparing of the management plan started with a internet forum, where anyone could comment on the conversation topics with their own name. Initial plan was to keep the forum up from halfway of February to mid-April. The forum was so popular and comments came raining down more than expected, so the forum closed up one and a half month later than planned. During the same time a survey was made to compare opinions between people living inside of wolf territories and those outside of territories.

In september the territory workshops were held in 10 places with a confirmed and established wolf packs to hear out what local people had to offer for wolf management. The workshops were a success and several new ideas were introduced during these workshops.

The updating process included also specialist workshops, in which topics of genetic purity, legislation and reindeer herding area were discussed.

During the fall a case of poaching was in court. The defendants had killed 3 wolves in Perho munincipality. The main theme of the case was animals genetic purity. The prosecutor considered animals pure wolves, as the University of Oulu had made a DNA comparison of killed individuals and a DNA database of over 400 wolves gathered between mid-90's to present day. The defense how ever had sent samples from the killed individuals to a laboratory in Russia and got different results, backing up the defendants allegation of killed individuals being wolf-dog hybrids rather than pure wolves. The basis of this allegation lies in the history. 20 years ago there was a pack consisting of wolf-dog hybrids and wolves. Only 4 of the animals (3 hybrids and 1 wolf) were removed leathally. Remaining animals (some say over 10 individuals, including a pregnant female), were let to live, since hunters didn't get more licences to remove animals.
The court ruling will be decided in January.

Throughout the year, most likely due Perho case, a unusually large number of poaching suspicions were aroused. Some appeared to be false and done to simply denigrate hunters in general. Most severe cases of anti-hunter behavior included vandalism to cars and threath-calls to hunters and their family members.

Also due the Perho case a wave of suspicion towards genetic purity of wolf population has arisen. Unusually light colored wolves and wolves diminished fear for humans have been considered a proof of wolf-dog hybridization in wolves of Finland. Claims of wolf-dog hybrids amounts go as high as being more than half of the Finnish wolf population. The official results how ever tell of only 3 confirmed hybridization events, in which two hybrids were adults and a one litter found dead during winter of 2010.

The management plan draft was published for comments in November. Few days earlier a new estimate of wolf packs was announced. The new estimate told that there were minimum of 24 packs that resided full-time inside borders of Finland. Minimum of 5 packs resided in the border area of Finland and Russia. The total amount of packs that had reproduced this year ranges between 29 and 41. The uncertainty is big due long wait for snow cover so that the uncertain packs could be confirmed.
At the same time with the management plan draft a new decree concerning hunting of wolves with population management licenses was published for comments. It contains a quota of 29 wolves. (amount of minimum reproduced packs.) These licenses would be used to remove young individuals from wolf packs to restore pack's fear for humans. The amount and final rules regarding hunting will be decided after comment period ends in 14th of January for the management plan draft and the decree.

During the year there have been several pro-wolf, anti-wolf and neutral manifestations, petitions and so on. Both anti- and pro-wolf campaigns have used their own version of truth starting from bigger or smaller number of wolves than the official consensus and either over- or underestimating wolves influence on lives of people who share surroundings of their homes with wolves.
The neutral manifestations/petitions haven't gone to  the extremes and they have mostly been criticizing the politics and political field's deafness towards voices and concerns of people living in areas with wolves.

The problems wolves have caused this year are mostly killings of hunting dogs, although few pet dogs have been taken from yards and even from cages. The current number of killed and attacked dogs after first of August (beginning of hunting season) has risen to 50 dogs according to map service maintained by private person.  Also sheep and cattle attacks have occurred ( sheep: 13 instances, 48 animals; cattle: 6 instances, 9 animals). Official count (reported to registry for game animal caused damage) of dogs is 24 individuals. The financial amount of damage is approximately 98 000€ (119 170 USD).


This was my small summary of main events concerning wolves in Finland 2014.

Thank you for this year and Happy New Year 2015!