NRK reports on the results of the research study.
Five years ago, the Norwegian Parliament decided that an independent report was needed on the origin of the Scandinavian wolf and now the result is clear.
Researchers in both Europe and Asia have contributed to the study and DNA from over 1300 wolves in Scandinavia, the rest of Europe and Asia has been collected.
DNA has been taken from wolves in the wild, but also from wolves in zoos.
DNA from wolves that died a long time ago is also included in the study.
Genetically similar to the Finnish wolf
The researchers thus found that the wolves living in Scandinavia today are genetically most similar to the wolf found in southwestern Finland.
- We have also found that the original Norwegian-Swedish wolf population was exterminated sometime before 1970, but that there are "remnants" of it in Swedish and Finnish zoos, says Hans K Stenøien who is research leader at the University of Trondheim.