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Dublin: 6 °C Saturday 25 May, 2013

Zoo worker fatally mauled by wolves in Sweden

Eight wolves reportedly surrounded the employee before attacking her in their enclosure.

Image: Bob Haarmans via Flickr

A ZOO WORKER has died after being attacked by a pack of wolves at a wildlife park in Sweden.

The 30-year-old woman was said by witnesses to have walked into the wolf enclosure at Kolmården Zoo around 11am yesterday morning before being surrounded by the animals.

Eight of them attacked her in the incident at the zoo, one of the country’s most popular wildlife attractions, the Independent reports.

Emergency workers were unable to reach the injured woman for some time, as she was still surrounded by the animals.

“You can’t just go into a pack of wolves. Police and ambulance staff couldn’t get close to the victim until later,” the district’s emergency co-ordinated said.

The zoo said that the employee had worked with the group of wolves since they were born, and was engaged in a routine visit to the enclosure meant to keep up contact with the animals, according to CNN.

All contact between wolves and people – both staff and visitors – has been stopped since the incident.

“We’ve noticed that we can no longer continue doing this. The risks are obviously too big to work in this manner, it’s going to be stopped,” zoo head Jan Roy said according to English-language Swedish news site TheLocal.

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Comments (4 Comments)

  • Very tragic. You can never predict how a wild animal will act when caged. No matter how good of a relationship you have with a wolf, it’s still a wild animal and prone to expressing itself when it feels it’s territory is encroached upon. What’s worse is that this woman probably really loved these wolves.

    There’s not a single carnivore more tenacious than a wolf. But I can’t imagine they saw her as food – given that they would be well fed in a zoo. To even fight off a single wolf is a big ask – grey wolves are extremely large.

    I wonder will the Zoo put the animals down now..

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  • Maybe the take-home message here is that it is against nature and the natural order of things for wolves (and other wild animals) and humans to be buddies. Condolences to that woman’s family.

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    • All domestic dogs today evolved from wolves which interacted with humans. But yes – as a general rule of thumb, let wild animals live in the wild. I’m not opposed to game parks, where the animal has sufficient space to live – but Zoo enclosures are just too cramped. Wolves are used to have territory for miles and miles… Not yards and yards.

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