The authorities in Armenia on Thursday issued a call to hunt down and kill wolves after increasing reports of attacks on rural villages.
Hunters who kill a wolf will be paid a reward of around 275 dollars (200 euros), a government statement said — a significant sum in impoverished regions of the ex-Soviet republic.
The authorities said the drive was necessary because the number of wolves has been growing and they have increasingly been raiding populated areas and killing farm animals.
The Armenian environmental protection ministry estimates that there are several hundred wolves in the country and they are not on the list of endangered species.
"Considering that a sharp rise in the number of wolves has been observed in Armenia in recent years, the government today approved a procedure for regulating the numbers of these wild animals and the measures to do it," the government statement said.
A prominent Armenian environmentalist said that officials should not "interfere with nature" by launching an extermination campaign, although he admitted that wolves had become a greater threat in recent years.
"One reason is the growth of uncontrolled poaching, the illegal killing of mammals which represent food for the wolves, so they have become more aggressive, looking for food in villages and attacking horses, cows and sheep," said Ruben Khachatrian, director of the Fund for Wildlife Protection.
Only people who have licences to hunt or come under attack will be permitted to shoot the wolves, the authorities said.
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