The wolves from Norway and Sweden are officially extinct, the ones currently living there are from Finland
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himNorwegian-Swedish wolves are officially extinct. This was confirmed by a study conducted by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the largest genetic study on wolves in the world.
According to the researchers, the original population of wolves that lived in Norway and Sweden, which arrived on site about 12.000 years ago, disappeared about 50 years ago mainly due to hunting and agricultural activities.
In the 80s they were replaced by wolves from Finland, which have never crossed paths with the now extinct indigenous population. Those currently present would therefore not be Norwegian and Swedish wolves, but Finns, with the exception of some rare specimens that live in zoos.
The current Norwegian and Swedish wolves, about 400 specimens, would therefore derive from a limited number of wolves originating in Finland, although they are genetically different from their ancestors.
This does not depend on new adaptations, but on consanguinity. The scarcity of specimens in this population has resulted in a lack of genetic diversity, which has made them more vulnerable to diseases and various hereditary conditions, including genetic defects. This is not good news because the new Norwegian and Swedish wolves, being "weak", could easily become extinct, just like their predecessors.
The study in question also looked at genetic samples from 56 different dog breeds to see if Norwegian-Swedish wolves shared some characteristics with them, as they are closely related animals. But no common elements were found.
Regarding the future management of wolves, a rather complicated question, the researchers preferred not to express themselves.
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SOURCE: NTNU
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