Paide resident followed by lone wolf in nighttime shadows of town's castle
A resident of the central Estonian town of Paide was tracked by a lone wolf late on Monday night, Postimees reported.
Virge Võsujalg, a board member of the Estonian Wildlife Society, said the behavior, captured on CCTV in the vicinity of the town's castle late on Monday night, was far from typical for a wild animal like a wolf.
The wolf had tracked a woman out walking her dog at around 10:40 p.m. Monday and close to the intersection of Tallinna and Veski streets, with the animal starting around 20 meters away from the dog walker and their pet and getting closer, before running away after apparently being startled.
Võsujalg confirmed that the animal captured on camera was a gray wolf and not a wolf-like breed like Nazgul the Czechoslovakian wolfdog, whose appearance during a cross country skiing final at February's Winter Olympics went viral.
Võsujalg said while the incident was no cause for panic, it would be sensible for pet owners to keep their dogs indoors or under close supervision at night, and for members of the public to keep their distance from the wolf, if it reappears, or from any other wild animal – sightings can also be called in to the state infoline on 1247.
Postimees' Russian-language edition has carried a video footage of the wolf.
The Eurasian wolf (Canis lupus lupus) is a protected species in Estonia, but culling is permitted November to February inclusive, to a set quota distributed nationwide. In the season just ended, 151 out of the permitted 163 animals were culled, the highest proportion hunted since 2011 even as the quota was not fully met.
Wildlife management has set a target population of 20-30 packs, or around 200 wolves, but this was exceeded as at the start of this year with at least 36 wolf packs known to inhabit mainland Estonia. Some of these are cross-border packs who spend time in Latvia too.
There is plenty of documented evidence of the species becoming bolder when it comes to human contact. One theory as to why this might be so relates to last year's wild boar cull, in the wake of the African swine fever epidemic. Wild boar are part of a wolf's staple diet.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
Source: Postimees
