Tuvan hunters have exceeded last year's record in shooting wolves, which was organized by the authorities of the republic to decrease the numbers of the predators and to protect the herders from their depredations. According to the head of the State hunting and fishing commission of Tuva, Alexander Novikov, in the four months of 2011 the total population of wolves in the republic was decreased by 455 head. In 2009 the hunters caught only 266 wolves, and in 2010 - 433. According to hunting specialists, the best indices has the state hunter of the Hunting and fishing commission Ivan Oyun. He has 31 wolves on his personal account. The overload in the struggle with wolves took place after a meeting with the participation of the leaders of all municipal agencies, which was held in the beginning of the year by the head of Tuva, Sholban Kara-ool. He turned special attention to this problem which had become acute; the increase of the wolf population was causing serious harm to herding farms. Tuvan government increased the rewards for killed wolves regardless of sex or age to 7000 rubles. The republic allocated 3 million rubles to this purpose.
At these new rates, rewards for 355 submitted wolf skins have already been paid to the hunters. Payments for the next hundred wolves will begin on May 15, when the Ministry of Finance will establish the next limit of the means.
In the words of Ivan Oyun, from April to end of May marks the most effective type of wolf hunting - in the dens, when the wolf females have their young. During this period, the hunters can take a whole wolf litter of 5 - 7 pups without firing a single gunshot, and realistically can stop the predators' population growth.. The wolf population in Tuva, according to gov.tuva.ru, is three times larger than the tolerable ecological norm. According to data of the census of wild animals taken by the hunting specialists, the wolf population in Tuva is about 2800 individuals.
Alexander Novikov believes that it is necessary to take more than 500 wolves every year to stabilize the situation.
Earlier, the ministry of farming presented evidence about the losses caused by wolves to herding of the republic. Only the registered economic losses suffered by farms from predator depredations in 2010 was more than 30 million rubles
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