The amounts of wolves in Norway and Scandinavia has been steadily increasing in the last few years. This following photo shows a scale of this increase.

In the winter of 2016-2017 there was registered 54-56 wolves that stayed completely inside the borders of Norway, while there was registered another 51-56 wolves living on the border between Norway and Sweden. This is as registered by Rovdata, the national monitor of predators in Norway. The scandinavian wide population has registered 430 wolves.

 

These numbers are the registered wolves of which there has been found DNA-samples. It is very likely that there are more wolves in Norway than what there has been found traces of. The south Scandinadian wolf population is one population that mainly life in the south areas of Sweden and Norway, which can be seen on the map.  

Because of the small population, and a lack of interaction with the finnish-russian population since 1991, there are high numbers of inbreeding within the species. Until 2008 the whole population originated all from 3 specific wolves. However in recent years, a few more interactions with migrator from the finnish-russian population have been registered. However there is still a high amount of inbreeding within this population. Consequences of a lack of genetic variation is a decreased reproduction rates and lower survival of the cubs. This complicates the continuation of a species that is already low in numbers.

 

This population is relatively small, and the scandinavian wolf population has the status of “endangered” in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. However, the south Scandinavian wolf population is a part of the species of Canis Lupus, the eurasian grey wolf. In the other northern countries that have populations of wolves have a relatively dense population. This species is well established, and has the status of “least concern” in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.