The Wolves of Turku were a trio of man-eating

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

which in 1880 and 1881 killed 22 children in

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. The average age of the victims of these wolves was 5.9 years. Their depredations caused such concern that the local and national government became involved, calling help from Russian and Lithuanian hunters, as well as the army. The wolves killed their last victim on 18 November 1881. On 12 January 1882, an old female wolf was shot and twelve days later, an adult male was poisoned, putting an end to the attacks. One of the dead wolves was sent to the hunting museum of Riihimäki, the other in the St Olof’s school where they can still be seen today. The third wolf ended up as a doormat and disappeared."Comments to the NINA report "The Fear of Wolves", Suomen Suurpetohdistys ry, Konapintie 62, 88900 KUHMO, FINLAND
/ref> In recent times, some Finnish conservationists, notably Pousette (2000), have debated the accuracy of the depicted events. Although he stated that there was no direct evidence that the wolves were previously captive animals as the wolf of Gysinge was, he indicated that the possibility could not be ruled out. He also stated that the female had poor teeth. Erkki Pulliainen, the leading wolf specialist of the Wolf Specialist Group of the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

stated that the historical information was very unreliable, and told the newspaper "Demari" on 27 October 2005, that one Turku wolf was really a

wolf-dog hybrid A wolfdog is a canine produced by the mating of a domestic dog (''Canis familiaris'') with a gray wolf (''Canis lupus''), eastern wolf (''Canis lycaon''), red wolf (''Canis rufus''), or Ethiopian wolf (''Canis simensis'') to produce a hybri ...

. Eirik Granqvist wrote an article in the leading daily

Helsingin Sanomat , abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that of the Finnish capital ...

confirming that they had been positively identified as wolves after their remains had been examined in both the hunting museum and St Olof's school.Letter to Mr. Pierre Schellekens, B-1049 Brussels, Belgium
/ref>

References

{{Reflist

Man-eating animals Individual wild animals 1880 disasters 1881 disasters 1880 in Finland 1881 in Finland 1880s disasters in Europe 19th-century disasters in Finland Natural disasters in Finland