Due to increasing ‘conflict’ between wolves and humans, Sweden’s government aims to carry out a significant (up to 50%) cull of the current wolf population of about 400 animals, a move that could breach EU directives, according to Green MP Maria Gardfjell. The original estimate for the right size of the wolves population was for a minimum of 300 animals, but now a majority in the Swedish parliament is in favour of cutting it down to 170 individuals, at the low extreme of the ‘170 to 270 range’ that still meets the requirements of the EU’s ‘species and habitats’ directive. Wolves were believed to be extinct by the mid 1900s, until three wolves from the Russian-Finnish population migrated to southern Sweden in the 1980s, founding a new population now estimated at about 480 animals, the vast majority of them in central Sweden. Conservation groups consider 300 as the minimum necessary population, therefore the 170 figure would seriously endanger the Swedish wolf. Read more: Theguardian.com