Thanks a lot for your comments!
I will try to provide you with some more facts on this matter:
First of all, I have learnt by now that the total quota was 27 individuals. So practically all were killed the very first day (death toll now said to be 21 in stead of 22). There has also been some confusion with regard to the total numbers actually killed, it might be only 25. Quotas were made for each individual hunting district, it seems that in one district "one to many" wolfes were shot whereas a couple of district couldn´t fulfill their quotas. Every wolf shot dead must be handed over to the authorities, for autopsys to be made. The lucky hunter can keep the skin/fur/pelt (what is the proper English expression?). All possible scientific use of this hunt will be made. Every dead animal will be studied in detail. The idea of introducing new speciments are are considered - when I was young only half a dozen wolfes lived in Sweden; much later a few individuals migrated here from Russia and the current population emante from them. Inbreeding is a problem. Much resources are devoted to research on the wolves - I sometimes get the impression that basically every pack is studied by some university or governmental institution, though I guess that I might be exaggerating a bit here.
The hunt is still front page news in Sweden, the debate is raging and "the two sides" are very split. Basically we have a devide between the countryside and people in urban areas. People in urban areas, like myself, tend to want Sweden to have sustainable number of wolfes in our country. (What is a "sustainable number", though? I honestly don´t know).
In the countryside people tend to be hostile towards wolfes. Cattle and sheep get killed. The odd pet dog, too. Here and there the people are afraid to let their children go out, when wolves have been sighted nearby. I live in the south of Sweden, where the wolfes are practically non-existent. Every now and the though, a young male will be coming down from the north, having wandered a 1000 kilometers or so in search of a female. Then it is front page news again! Every movement of the animal, any sighting, any photograph or blurry video taken will be reported in the press and on TV. As will every sheep it kills. The farmers and the hunters will apply to the authorities for permission to kill the animal. The authorities will say no. It is almost like a predictable soap opera and the last time it occurred was only a couple of months ago.
As for the ratios quoted above, and I am sure they are all correct, it has to be noted though that the small number of wolves in Sweden are in fact concentrated into rather small areas of the country, so statistics may be a bit misleading. But I would be the first to admit that the number of 210 appears a bit arbitrary. And then again - I am a city-dweller and an armchair conservationist - I am not the one who goes to attend my sheep in the morning, only to find that most of them are dead and that I have to kill a few of the survivors myself. By the way, and If you would like to, check out my rather melodramatically named thread on this very subject:
http://www.zoochat.com/65/wolfes-automatic-killing-machines-60300/
What more can I tell you? Oh, we have about 300 000 - 400 000 moose in Sweden. (About 100 000 are killed in the autumn hunt every year.) We also have lots of roe deer etc. All the natural prey animals are here. In the far north we have a lot of semi-tame reindeer, managed by the only indiginous population in Sweden: The Sami. They are essientally fiercly anti-wolf and the authorities do their best to please them (if for no other reason, then because of the racial oppression that this people has suffered - one of Sweden´s dirty little secrets, by the way).
So, in the end, the question about the wolf in Sweden boils down to its "compatability" with man. Just like the tiger in India or.... yes... doesn´t this just sound all to familiar?
I want them here, in my country, but then again I am the armchair conservationist...
