Jumping wolf photographer loses wildlife prize

The winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award has been disqualified after judges ruled that the featured wolf was probably a "model".

The 2009 winning image, dubbed the storybook wolf, was taken by photographer Jose Luis Rodriguez.

Mr Rodriguez strongly denied that the wolf was a trained animal, according to a statement from the organizers.

His photograph was chosen out of more than 43,000 competition entries in October 2009.

Louise Emerson from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition office explained that the judging panel had been "reconvened" and had concluded that it was likely that the wolf featured in the image was an animal model that could be "hired for photographic purposes".

This, she said, was in breach of the competition rules which are made available to all entrants.

"The judging panel looked at a range of evidence and took specialist advice from panel judges who have extensive experience of photographing wildlife including wolves," continued Ms Emerson.

"They also considered the responses to specific questions put to the photographer."

Wildlife photographer Mark Carwardine was one of the competition judges. He told BBC News that this was the first time in its 46 year history that there would not be a winner.

Mr Carwardine explained that he and his fellow judges had gathered evidence and sought the opinions of wolf experts in order to reach their decision.

The experts compared the winning picture to pictures of Ossian, a tame wolf that lives at a zoological park near Madrid called Canada Real.

"You can see several very distinctive markings and the experts all agreed that, yes, it's the same wolf," said Mr Carwardine.

"We disqualified [Mr Rodriguez] and banned him for life from entering the competition again, so I think that sends a strong message."

Mr Carwardine added that Mr Rodruiguez had, throughout the investigation, denied "hiring" Ossian for the photograph. The disqualified photographer maintains that his subject was a wild wolf.

Mr Rodriguez was not immediately available for comment.

"This is very sad and I think it might make us more suspicious of entries that are too good to be true," said Mr Carwardine. But he added that he hoped it would encourage honesty in the competition in the future.

The disqualified photograph will be removed from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, which is being held at the Natural History Museum in London. The exhibition tour will also take place without a winning image.

Sweden culls its resurgent wolves

Swedish hunters have begun culling wolves for the first time in 45 years after parliament ruled that numbers needed to be reduced again.

More than half the quota of 27 may have died on the first day alone with nine shot dead in Dalarna and up to nine killed in Varmland, Swedish radio says.

Hunters have until 15 February to complete the cull, which will leave Sweden with an estimated 210 wolves.

Some 10,000 hunters were reported to be planning to take part in the hunt.

Hunting in the county of Dalarna was halted as the county's individual quota was nine wolves.

Varmland's quota of nine "may also have been filled", the radio reported later on Saturday.

'Five injured'

In Dalarna, hunters reportedly injured another five wolves.

Every time a hunter shoots and hits a wolf he has to report it to the county authorities, so they can keep track of the local cull.

Earlier, hunters insisted there were measures in place to prevent them shooting too many.

"There's a lot of regulation, hunters have to check the quota every hour," Gunnar Gloersson, of the Swedish Hunters Association, told Swedish radio.

Nevertheless, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation was critical of the decision to proceed with the cull, saying it was against EU legislation as the Swedish wolf population had not reached a healthy level.

A formal complaint was to be issued to the EU Commission, Swedish radio said.

The hunt is timed to end before the mating season, which begins in mid-February.

Snow vital

Wolves were hunted to near extinction in southern Scandinavia until a hunting ban was imposed in the 1970s.

Sweden and Norway have worked together to reintroduce the species to the forests along their border. When Norway culled some wolves in 2001, saying the population had spread too far, Sweden lodged a protest.

But the Swedish parliament recently decided there should be at most 210 wolves in Sweden.

Michael Schneider of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency says that was the level last year, and since then more than 20 pairs of wolves have had pups.

"We have to remove this increase to keep the population at this level," he said.

Mr Gloersson, of the hunting association, said: "We have a lot of problems with wolves - in reindeer areas, with livestock, and for hunters they kill our valuable dogs."

"Since they came back we have to live with them, but we have to keep their numbers down."

He said the success of the cull would depend on the weather.

"The only easy way to hunt wolves is if we have snow, so the hunters can track them on the snow. If we don't have snow I don't think we'll even be able to reach the quota of 27 wolves," he said.