Fascinating animals

There are many large, fascinating animals to be found roaming free in Sweden. Wherever you go in the forest, your chances of meeting one or other of them are great.

The biggest of them all is the elk (am. moose), which may be found throughout the country. A fully-grown bull elk can weigh up to 600 kg.

Countless legends have grown up around the four great beasts of prey - the bear, the wolf, the lynx and the wolverine. They are mainly to be found in mountain forests and in the forests of the northern half of the country. Ten or twenty years ago, these four great predators were on the point of extinction in Sweden. But thanks to preservation orders and better surveillance against poachers, the most acute danger has passed and numbers are rising once more.

Although restricted hunting is allowed, almost a thousand bears are lumbering around in Swedish forests. And the bears are spreading south. A young male seeking a willing mate caused a minor sensation in the spring of 1996 when he happened to pass within twenty kilometres of the centre of Stockholm.

The lynx, too, has increased rapidly thanks to a generous supply of its favourite prey - roe deer. The number of lynx in Sweden is estimated to be almost a thousand animals. A few have even been reported as far south as Skone.

The situation is less rosy for the hidden mountain celebrity, the wolverine. Although it has been on the protected list since 1969, its numbers have hardly increased at all from around 200 animals. The reasons for this are suspected to be poaching and a growing use of motor vehicles in the mountains.

The wolf, considered extinct in Sweden in the 1970s has revived in a way verging on the miraculous, and now divides Sweden into two camps - wolf-lovers and wolf-haters. The return of the wolf has caused such tensions that wolf-lovers have been forced to move from areas where wolves have appeared and created mayhem among sheep and reindeer. But the wolf is still in acute danger of extinction. There are only around 40 animals in the country, most of them in the forests of the provinces of Varmland and Dalarna.

There are also several large species of birds of prey in Sweden. Along the coasts and in the mountains, it is possible to find the white-tailed eagle, the golden eagle, the gyrfalcon and the peregrine falcon nesting. In the forests and archipelagos you will find eagle owls and other varieties of owl, while the farmland hosts a large population of hawks and buzzards.

The eagles and the two falcons were headed for extinction in the 1970s as a result of environmental toxins in the sea and a lack of undisturbed nesting sites. But today the survival of these populations is considered to have been secured. Toxin levels have been reduced, the nesting sites are better protected, and foresters are now obliged to preserve large trees that provide suitable nesting sites.