instead of Uggs, mukluk boots

[malkin]

Were the Oslo suburban forest wolves (re)introduced by humans?

[lph]

The wolves weren't actively re-introduced, they wandered there on their own accord, but they are definitely still there due to human involvement. Østmarka ie. "the East woods" which we live right up against is very much used for recreational purposes, skiing, hiking etc, but there's a small nature reserve in the middle which is extraordinarily hard to get to or through. No roads, virtually no paths, thick forest and hard to navigate. In winter you can traverse it on skis over some small lakes, but the wooded parts are then even more inaccesible. The location of the wolves is kept a secret, but I'm pretty convinced they're in there.

Nationwide there's a big controversy over wolves. Norway has very few, but we have a policy of xx pups a year, I forget how many. Problem is that how many we have on our side of the border is rather random, we share a long border with Sweden which has lots of uninhabited forest and quite a lot of wolves. Our side is inhabited farmland, woodland and grazing land due to a determined policy of subsidizing the rural districts. Sheep farmers regularly have wolf attacks on their sheep (as well as lynx and eagles), but according to a farmer friend we just visited they can get a permit to shoot an aggressive wolf, but it takes too long. The most aggressive ones are often young males, loners who travel long distances, and by the time someone had got a permit the wolf is long gone.