Two wolves escaped from zoo!

[lou]

last night two 10 months old wolves escaped from a large "safarizoo" in the south of sweden (kolmården). they dug a one meter deep hole under the fence and were out! i'm keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that they'll escape the people that are out hunting them (the police want to shoot them) and scarper into the huge forest! i feel so happy thinking about them finally having escaped captivity and the feel of fresh moss under their paws, and the deep rich smell of the forest... i hope mother nature takes care of them and hides them well.

there is a wild population of wolves in sweden but they are illegally shot, one by one, by humans who want their prey for themselves :-( the same for the brown bears, lynx, wolverines....

i just wanted to share these news with someone.

[xwitchymagicx]

Ugh, oh dear...I'm guessing they won't be able to hunt, which means they'll end up starving even if they don't get shot.

[lou]

yeah there's a risk of them starving...:-( but there might also be a possibility that they still have the insticts to hunt, apparently these two have had only minimal contact with humans, they haven't been "tamed".
i don't know what's worth though...starving to death in freedom or getting your meals served in captivity?
don't get me wrong, starving to death must be a horrid way of dying, but i just can't help thinking that these two individuals wanted, needed, to get out so badly, they probably wouldn't be satisfied or stimulated, "happy", in captivity.

fortunately all the snow is gone and it's extremely mild for the season, so they actually stand a fair chance of survival, that's what i feel in my heart!

[xwitchymagicx]

Well I hope they do ok.

I think wolves learn off their mother...so you just have to hope...

I still don't think there is much chance of them surviving, but you never know!

[rantipole]

I also hope they haven't been exposed to some kind of disease while in captivity and transport it back to natural wolf populations. That happens a lot. It's one of the major reasons desert tortoises are in trouble in the US.

I wish the wee beasties well.

Cheers,
rant

[lou]

sorry, this thread should have been started in "Animals", i'm still getting used to this forum. Korn-you may move it if you wish!

unfortunately one of the wolves was shot yesterday, the other one is lingering outside the safari and they're hoping to sedate it and bring it back into captivity.

it just really pisses me off, what have done to these beautiful beings? there should be a strong population of wolves in sweden, now there are 14 individuals...these two males could have been a very important input to the already inbred genepool.
one of the arguments the zoo used for justifying the killing was that they sometimes are blamed for planting out zoo-born animals into the wild, and they don't want to be in this connotation.

it's f-d up, these zoo-people are always using excuses for their horrid occupation, i.e education of the public, being a genepool or whatever but just leave them alone! these two males would have made it (they hadn't been exposed to disease according to the zoo vet), they're not domesticated animals, they still have their hunting instincts...
sorry for ranting i just feel so upset and ashamed of being human. we're destroying the planet and putting thousands upon thousand of species into extinction. not to mention the cruelty in the "animal industries"...what a horrid word.