BREAKING NEWS: A licensed hunt of wolverine in Sweden starts October 1. This is the highest wolverine hunting quota ever and a 66% increase from the previous year. The hunt violates the wolverine’s status as a “Strictly protected species” in the Bern Convention, of which Sweden is a signatory party.
In Jamtland County alone, almost 10% of its estimated wolverine population, 25 wolverines, will be killed. Sweden again carries out a hunt that violates the wolverine’s status as a “Strictly protected species” in the Bern Convention. Additionally, a further 18 to 25 wolverines are expected to be killed during the so-called “Protective hunt”, in Sweden during the year ahead. Sweden’s wolverine population was in 2023 estimated at only 680 adult individuals, of which around 290 are in Jamtland County.
Chairman of the Swedish Carnivore Association
“The Jamtland County Wildlife management board defends these drastic measures to avoid risks for negative results for the reindeer herding business”, states Magnus Orrebrant, Chairman of the Swedish Carnivore Association. “However, sources we have spoken to within the reindeer herding communities, mean that a Protective hunt serves their interests much better, rather than these general hunting quotas. Taking care of the problems on location, instead of killing off random individual wolverines that might not even be causing problems for the reindeer owners.”
Highest quota ever
The 2024 wolverine hunting quota is the highest ever in Sweden. This is the third consecutive year that wolverines are hunted in Sweden, since they were first nationally protected back in 1969. Sweden’s Environmental Protection Agency states that the lowest possible population number for wolverine in Sweden, to guarantee the species’ long-term survival, needs to be 603 adult individuals.
100 years of progress being undone
A hundred years of large carnivore conservation progress in Sweden is right now being undone at an alarming speed, mainly because of the high licensed hunting quotas permitted. Sweden’s government is continuing in its clear ambition to bring down all the country’s large carnivore populations as close as possible to the theoretically defined absolute minimum numbers.
Authorized hunt in breach of the Bern Convention
The wolverine (Gulo gulo) is a “Strictly protected species” in the Bern Convention, Category II, of which Sweden is a signatory party. This means that no population-regulating hunting is allowed. The wolverine is also protected according to the EU Habitats Directive, Annex II. Still, Sweden recently opened up for this hunt even as an annual feature, clearly in breach of the Bern Convention. The wolverine is categorized as Vulnerable (VU) in the Swedish Red List (2020), published by the Swedish Species Information Centre (SLU Artdatabanken) at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
The wolverine’s role in nature
The wolverine plays an important role in Sweden’s northern forest and mountain ecosystems, since the Ice age. Wolverines are carrion specialists, “Hyaenas of the Taiga Forest”, dependant on the existence of prey abandoned by other large predators in their areas. In Sweden, wolverines primarily feed on reindeer carcasses and slaughter remains after hunting parties.
Increased legal challenges
2024’s wolverine hunt, starting October 1, will further put a spotlight on the already existing violation cases against Sweden for how the country is handling its large carnivores. Such as the formal complaint lodged with the EU Commission in April 2024 concerning Sweden’s licensed hunt of the Strictly protected lynx.
Links
- Time for the next hunt of a Red-listed species. The Swedish Carnivore Association 240930 (in Swedish)
- Wolverine Facts
- Carnivores as moneymakers
- Swedes like their large carnivores
- Europe’s Environmental Bad boy
- Domestic animal losses and other damage by wildlife 2022 (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU, 2021, Swedish)
- Official wolverine statistics in Sweden (Swedish)
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