The wolf in Lövånger shot from a helicopter: “The limit was reached”

During the autumn, the wolf has, among other things, torn several sheep in Lövsele and dispersed reindeer herds for Malå Sami village.

– It is probably a wolf that has been in the area for quite some time. It attacked sheep earlier last fall, says Ulf Bergelin, deputy head of the nature conservation unit at the County Administrative Board in Västerbotten.

Malå Sami village has previously applied for protective hunting of the wolf, but was not granted it, which led to that the Sami village reported to the county board.

– Then we had no indication of what it was doing, or where it was. We kept the application open to see how it developed and had a good dialogue with the Sami village about it.

Succeeded in warding off another hunting attempt

During Friday, a new application for protective hunting of the wolf was received from the Sami village.

– The wolf had been among the reindeer and they had seen hunting attempts which they managed to ward off, says Ulf Bergelin and continues:

– It showed that the wolf had intended to stay in the area, there were no signs that it would leave. We thought the limit had been reached. We had hoped that it would go further and join the Swedish wolf tribe.

The County Administrative Board then carried out the hunt itself and the wolf was shot from a helicopter on Saturday.

– It went relatively quickly.

Hear Malå Samiby about the criticism of the county board earlier in the winter.