A recent proposal approved by a European Parliament subcommittee would prohibit all EU nations from importing any seal products. This would be an economic blow to Canada, which holds the world’s largest yearly commercial seal hunt, as well as Greenland, which has a heritage of seal hunting. Read the full story

A particularly determined woodpecker on the island of Oland has gone on a pecking frenzy, creating dozens of fist-sized holes in several houses in the town of Tornbotten. The problem has become so bad that residents of this quiet island off south eastern Sweden have asked local authorities for permission to shoot the bird dead.

Speaking to the newspaper Expressen, Leif Johansson explained that his house has been repeatedly targeted by the woodpecker, and his frustration is boiling over. “There are fist-sized holes in the houses…it costs money to replace those boards. If it makes a hole in my house I need to tear down a whole wall. This woodpecker is totally out of its mind.”

Read the full story

Recent remarks by Sweden’s King Carl Gustaf XVI that wolves should be hunted in Sweden immediately raised cries of concern from local members of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). Speaking to journalists last week, the King stated that he was not against the idea of allowing Sweden’s wolves to be hunted out of a concern that the nation’s wolf population could potentially “explode.”

Read the full story

Since its first sighting in 2006 in the forests south of Oslo, Norway’s rare albino moose known as “Albin” has become something of a national mascot. But a group of hunters recently threatened to shoot the creature if they can find it, reports the newspaper Aftenposten.

The moose has been seen around Valer, Spydeberg, Skiptvet and Svinndal over the past 2 years. Norway’s moose Read the full story

Last week Norway officially stated that it would not be able to catch enough whales this year to meet its allocated quota. Few nations still allow whaling, and animal activists are jumping on this opportunity to claim that this is proof Norway should abandon the highly controversial act of whaling.

Since the opening of this year’s whaling season on April 1, Norwegian fishermen have only been able to catch half of the number of whales allowed by government authorities. 533 minke whales have been caught out of an allowed quota of 1,052. The whaling season ended on August 31, and local fishermen were already admitting that they would fall far short of the quota weeks in advance, according to The Guardian.

Read the full story

Farmers in Norway have been taking drastic measures to rid their farms of wolves, leading police and conservationists to team up in an effort to protect the animals. According to United Press International, Norway’s police have joined forces with environmentalists in a campaign to save wolves from death by poison or explosives, two of the ways famers are ridding themselves of what they consider to be a pest.

According to local researchers, as many as half of all wolf deaths in Scandinavia are caused by illegal hunting practices – in fact, many of the deaths are caused by farmers who claim the wolves are attacking their farm animals.

The situation has become tense. Kenneth Larsen of Hedmark University College is a researcher who tracks wolves for study. He recently went looking for a wolf he has been tracking, only to return to his car and find his tyres had been slashed.

Larsen’s college, Petter Wabakken, said that he and his team have found evidence of both poison and explosives being deployed against wolves and against their lairs. The region along the border with Sweden in Norway’s southern area is one of the most dangerous areas for wolves, he says.

According to Knut Maelen of the Hedmark Police District, the tyre slashing incident is just one indication of how bad things have become. He describes it as an “inflamed situation.”