Conservationists to lie in wait for wolf hunters

Environmentalists are planning to camp out in the snow to foil a cull of nine wolves in south-east Norway due to begin today.

Environmentalists are planning to camp out in the snow to foil a cull of nine wolves in south-east Norway due to begin today.

The environmentalists, who have campaigned internationally about the wolves' plight, say stocks in Norway have reached just 30 or 40 animals since Oslo and Stockholm agreed to encourage a return of wolves in the mid-1990s - too few, they say, to allow hunting.

About two dozen hunters, equipped with helicopters and snow scooters, will scour pine forests for their prey after the government said wolf packs were growing too quickly and were responsible for killing 612 sheep last year. No one has been injured by a wolf in Norway.

The hunt for one pack of seven animals and a separate pair could last until April.