WATCH: Swede films a wolf running alongside his car

Wolf sightings are rare in Sweden unless you're at a zoo, so it's no surprise that a video of one of the animals happily running alongside a car has spread quickly since it was published at the weekend.

Published: 9 May 2017 13:59 CEST

WATCH: Swede films a wolf running alongside his car

A screenshot from the video. Photo: Jonas Blomqvist

Jonas Blomqvist from Brålanda in western Sweden filmed the wolf during the early hours of Saturday morning then uploaded it to Facebook, and it has been watched more than 80,000 times since.

“It was 04:15 and I was travelling home from my job. I was taking a work colleague to Vänersborg, so I took a different road than usual,” Blomqvist explained to The Local.

“I ended up behind the wolf in a tunnel, so I slowed down and started to film it. Otherwise no one would have believed us – we screamed!”

Wild wolf numbers in Sweden are low, with the population estimated to be around 340 before the most recent wolf hunt at the start of 2017.

Despite human contact being unusual for the animals, this particular one didn't seem too bothered by the presence of a car driving alongside it.

“Wolves are absolutely not common in this area. It didn't bother with the car or us at all. We drove alongside it for a couple of hundred metres, then he wandered into the woods and disappeared,” Blomqvist noted.