Select a Location

Sweden at a glance

Sweden shares a wolf population with Norway, which causes occasional fluctuations in both country’s wolf numbers. Currently, 90 percent of this transborder population lives in Sweden. Due to cultural conflicts with humans and wolves in northern Sweden, this Scandinavian population is very isolated genetically.

This population is managed separately by Sweden and Norway. Sweden is a member of the European Union whereas Norway is not, which creates differences and challenges in managing this shared population.

Main prey for wolves here are ungulates.

The website www.wildsweden.com provided this summary of wolves in Sweden: “The Wolf was claimed to be extinct in Scandinavia in the 1960’s. In the early 1980’s three Wolves migrated from the Russian-Finnish population all the way to the county of Värmland in Southern Sweden close to the Norwegian border. These Wolves founded the new Wolf population and multiplied successfully into about 200 Wolves before some more Wolves arrived naturally from the Russian-Finnish population in 2008. Today most Wolves live in the Southern parts of Central Sweden.”

Species Information

Species
Common Names: gray wolf, varg (Swedish)
Latin Name: Canis lupus

Subspecies
Common Name:
Latin Name: Canis lupus lupus

Current Wolf Population, Trend, Status
Number of wolves: Shares a population of approximately 430 with Norway (90 percent live in Sweden)
Population trend: Increasing
Legal protection: Full protection, with seasonal exceptions

This page was last updated in 2020.

More Information

Related Links and Information

Research

Recent media coverage