Just before Christmas 1985 wolf researchers in Sweden made a particularly ugly discovery: the ritually mutilated corpse of an 18-month-old pup. It had been shot and scalped, its ears removed and a hind leg cut off. Then, in February 1986, another young wolf was chased along a forest track by a car, which smashed its back legs and killed it. These are merely the latest incidents in an irrational anti-wolf campaign, which is threatening the species's tentative come-back in Scandinavia. The author, who has worked extensively with Scandinavian conservationists since 1971, describes the plight of Sweden's wolves and explains why it is important to protect them.