Minister Sirkka-Liisa Anttila would allow a revival of the spring hunting of bears

Regional Council of Lapland’s Beasts of Prey Forum discussed the dilemma that the growing number of large carnivores is presenting to the reindeer husbandry sector.

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By Tapio Mainio in Salla, Finnish Lapland
     
      Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sirkka-Liisa Anttila (Centre Party) feels that the spring hunting for bears could be restarted on a trial basis in the reindeer herding areas.
      The spring hunt of bears was banned in 1993.
      “Allowing the hunting would reduce the calf losses, for the growing number of large beasts of prey in the country is already posing a threat to reindeer husbandry”, Anttila says.
     
Anttila was speaking at the Beasts of Prey Forum organised on Monday by the Regional Council of Lapland in the northern municipality of Salla.
      The Forum’s topics centred on the carnivore predicament that the reindeer herders have recently found themselves in.
      Already in ten of the country’s reindeer herding districts, the calf losses are so extensive that the profession has become unprofitable.
      The reindeer herders are simply not making any money.
     
The experimental hunting of bears in the spring months would last for three years.
      Killing of mother bears with cubs would not be permitted.
      The trial would be realised by amending the hunting regulations, but this would call for a decision by the government.
      Bears have been found to reduce the number of reindeer in the spring, just after the beasts have woken up from their winter hibernation.
      In the Salla Sports Centre auditorium, around 200 reindeer owners insisted that Minister Anttila introduce tougher measures to curb the country’s growing number of beasts of prey.
     
In addition to the brown bear, also the wolf, the wolverine, and the lynx are now very much in the line of fire.
      All of their populations should be reduced to the level of 1995, say the reindeer owners.
      This would require dozens of additional shooting permits. If they had their way, the reindeer owners would prefer to reduce the number of wolves in the reindeer husbandry areas as close to zero as possible.
      “The large carnivores have spread northwards from the south. For example the lynx has clearly become more common in the entire area of the Inari municipality”, explains reindeer herder Nils-Heikki Näkkäläjärvi from the Sallivaara reindeer husbandry district.
     
Anttila, too, would be ready to reduce the number of beasts.
      “Finland’s large predator populations are on the up, and therefore increasing the number of shooting permits in Lapland would not pose a threat to the sustainable level of conservation laid down in the European Union nature directive”, Anttila explains.
      The Regional Council of Lapland also presented Anttila with compiled suggestions for different ways to reduce the growing number of the country’s carnivore populations.
      Anttila said that she would consider the suggested stronger involvement from the government’s part in controlling the numbers of predators.
     
One possibility would be the so-called Norwegian model, in which a hunter hired by the state would shoot the beasts feeding on reindeer.
      In this way, national positions for hunters could be set up in Finland for the elimination and expulsion of predators that cause harm.
      According to senior planning officer Harri Norberg from the Lapland Game Management District, there is a case to answer: the number of reindeer killed by beasts of prey has increased by 150 per cent in the last ten years.
      The situation is the worst in the southern and eastern regions of the reindeer husbandry area, but the damage has increased in Southern and Central Lapland as well.
     
”In the last five years, the slaughter calf production in the Eastern Lapland herding districts has fallen from 13,573 to 8,522 calves”, Norberg says.
      In addition, in Northwestern Lapland more and more reindeer have been killed by the growing wolverine population.
      One suggestion is to move the wolverines further south from the reindeer herding areas.
     
“The reindeer owners have grown tired of the burgeoning predator populations. Many of them would be willing to give up hunting wolves if the task was passed over to the authorities. Also, hunting takes time away from one’s normal reindeer husbandry duties and on top of everything else the reindeer keepers get branded as 'wolf killers'”, explains reindeer owner Magreta Sara.
      Even now there are an estimated 20 wolves living in the reindeer herding area. Every once in a while some of them also cross the borders into northern Russia, Norway, and Sweden.
     
The wolf has been classified in Finland as extremely endangered, and it is a protected species.
      Towards the end of 2006, the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute estimated the country’s wolf population at 250. At the end of last year the corresponding figure was down to 150.
      Poaching is considered the main reason for the decline of the population, and it is believed often to be not unconnected with the reindeer herding community, frustrated at the attrition caused to their herds and livelihoods.
     
A reindeer is an easy catch for a wolf, and from the perspective of reindeer husbandry, the wolf poses a more serious threat than either the brown bear or wolverine.
      One wolf can eat up to 30 reindeer or 15 elk in a year.
      Shooing the animals away is of little help: if chased and disturbed, a wolf can kill as many as a hundred reindeer per year, as it has to leave some of the carcasses only partly eaten.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 1.2.2011


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finland plans to launch intensive hunt to reduce lynx population (16.11.2010)
  Finland´s wolf population has collapsed in the last few years (15.10.2010)

See also:
  The fearsome wolf (7.4.2010)
  Hunters on the scent of bears (31.8.2010)

Links:
  International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry: Challenges

TAPIO MAINIO / Helsingin Sanomat
tapio.mainio@hs.fi