Scientists following the movements of a GPS-tagged wolf practically in real time were puzzled, and with good reason.
The animal seemed to be making purposefully for the Swedish border and Haparanda (Haaparanta in Finnish) at a brisk trot.
It soon became clear that the collar belonged to a tagged wolf that had been (quite legally) shot in Kainuu over a weekend. How, then, was it now heading west?
The person shooting the animal had given the radio-collar to a friend, who had tossed it into the trunk of his car.
From there it continued to emit a signal when the man in question set off on the Monday morning to work on a logging site in Sweden.
These things happen. On the other hand, the story of a tracking collar having been tossed from a bridge into an empty ore waggon on a train bound for a smelting plant in Kostomuksha (Kostamus) in Russia, causing much consternation amongst watching zoologists, is apparently just an amusing urban legend.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 17.8.2008
