Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

ATTACK

Woman killed by pack of wolves in Swedish zoo

A female employee of the Kolmården zoo in central Sweden was mauled to death in the wolf enclosure on Sunday morning.

Published: 17 June 2012 15:04 CEST
Woman killed by pack of wolves in Swedish zoo

A crisis group assembled to provide support for Kolmården’s employees, and the woman’s relatives have been notified, reported news agency TT.

The incident occurred just after 11am on Sunday morning. According to eye-witness reports, the woman went into the enclosure, was surrounded and then attacked, wrote the Aftonbladet newspaper.

Emergency services were alerted at 11.11am, and were initially unable to approach the woman.

“You can’t just go in to a pack of wolves. Police and ambulance staff couldn’t get close to the victim until later,” said Norrköping’s emergency services coordinator Jan Tengeborg to the newspaper.

According to Aftonbladet, emergency services are currently attempting to sedate the other wolves nearby.

“It’s very unusual for something like this to happen, but it has happened before,” Olof Liberg, wolf expert at Sweden’s University of Agricultural Sciences (Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, SLU) said to TT.

“Zoo animals aren’t afraid of humans and accidents can happen,” he continued.

Liberg has yet to familiarize himself with this specific case, but said that accidents like this one often occur because of a breach in routine, and notes that wolves are especially dangerous when a zookeeper goes in alone.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

ANIMALS

Spain moves to ban wolf hunting and give species protected status

Spain has taken steps to award the Iberian wolf protected status which will mean a complete ban on hunting the species.

Published: 5 February 2021 15:27 CET
Spain moves to ban wolf hunting and give species protected status
Photo: Mark Chinnick/Flickr

The Committee of Spain’s Natural Patrimony – which includes representatives from each of Spain’s regional governments – voted to include the wolf (Canis Lupus) on the national list of protected species along with the Iberian Lynx and the Cantabrian Brown Bear.

It now has to be signed off by Environmental minister Teresa Ribera.

Farmers however were quick to condemn the move, arguing that a nationwide hunting ban would lead to more attacks on their livestock.

Hunting of the Iberian wolf is currently only allowed north of the Duero but those populations south of the river were already listed as a protected species.

Spain is home to an estimated 1,500-2,000 Iberian wolves, with 90 percent of the population found in the northern regions of Castilla y León, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia.

But wolf populations have been detected even within the Madrid region in the sierra less than an hour’s drive from the capital.

Farmers Union UPA accused the government of igoing against the interests of farmers and insist that the number of attacks on livestock have grown alongside wolf conservation programmes.

“It is we livestock farmers who are in danger of extinction,” it said in a statement.  

Conservation group Ecologists in Action however, welcomed the new protection but urged authorities to work with farmers on ways to protect cattle without harming wolves.

READ MORE: 

SHOW COMMENTS