The Wolf of Gysinge was a man-eating

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, includin ...

which, in three months, attacked and killed many children in Gysinge near central

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

in the early 1820s.

Attacks

During a three-month period between December 30, 1820, and March 27, 1821, the wolf attacked 31 people, which resulted in a total of 12 fatalities, most of whom were partially consumed by the wolf. The attacks occurred near Gysinge (within present-day

Sandviken Municipality Sandviken Municipality () is a municipality in Gävleborg County, in east central Sweden. The seat is the town of Sandviken. The present municipality was created in 1971 through the amalgamation of the City of Sandviken (itself instituted in 19 ...

) in

Uppland Uppland is a historical province or ' on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. The name literally ...

, near the border of

Dalarna Dalarna (; ), also referred to by the English exonyms Dalecarlia and the Dales, is a (historical province) in central Sweden. Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland. It is also bordered by Nor ...

and

Gästrikland Gästrikland () is a historical province or ''landskap'' on the eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Uppland, Västmanland, Dalarna, Hälsingland and the Gulf of Bothnia. Gästrikland is the southernmost and the most densely populated of the No ...

in central

. With the exception of one 19-year-old woman, all victims of fatal attacks were children between the ages of three and a half and 15; in addition, the 15 injured victims were mostly children, except for one 18-year-old male.

Wolf

The wolf was killed on March 27, 1821. Historical accounts indicate that before becoming a man-eater, the wolf was captured as a pup in 1817, and kept in captivity for several years before escaping. In captivity, wolves tend to lose their natural shyness of humans and thus attack more frequently after escape from captivity.

Dramatisation

The incident was dramatised in the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

TV series '' Manhunters'' in the final episode, "The Man-Eating Wolves of Gysinge", which aired on 16 December 2005.IMDb
"The Man-Eating Wolves of Gysinge"
/ref> The episode took artistic liberty in portraying the number of wolves involved in the attacks, showing two animals instead of one. The man-eating wolves were portrayed by

Czechoslovakian Wolfdog The Czechoslovakian Wolfdog (, , ) is a breed of wolfdog that began as an experiment conducted in Czechoslovakia in 1955 by colonel Jan Hartl together with known and respected cynologist Dr. Heiri Machat. The breed was known as Czech Wolfdog ( ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gysinge Deaths due to wolf attacks Man-eating animals Individual wolves Individual animals in Sweden Individual wild animals 1820 in Sweden 1821 in Sweden

Attacks

Wolf

Dramatisation

See also

References