OSLO A lone wolf survived a controversial Norwegian hunt that ended on Friday after nine other wolves were killed by state-appointed hunters riding helicopters and snowmobiles.

"The hunt ended today, so one wolf was spared," Svein Norberg, spokesman for the Norwegian Directorate of Nature Management, told Reuters.

The wolf had eluded 24 hunters stalking the forests of eastern Norway since early February.

Farmers blamed the wolves for killing 612 sheep last year, but environmentalists say stocks of wolves are too fragile to survive the cull.

Norberg said the directorate would not extend the hunt permit beyond Friday. Mist and melting snow had made it hard for the hunters to track the final wolf through slush in forests in eastern Norway.

The wolf, probably a young female, was likely to prowl away from the region in search of other wolves, Norberg said.

Most of the other wolves were shot by hunters from a helicopter -- normally banned as unethical in Norwegian hunts.

The hunt is estimated to have cost taxpayers 3.0 million crowns ($331,200) -- about $36,000 for each of the nine shot.

The Norwegian Environment Ministry says the wolves have been breeding too quickly after Norway and Sweden jointly decided in the mid-1990s to encourage the predators to return to south Scandinavia a century after they were almost wiped out.

It says there are now about 10 wolf packs in south Scandinavia, or about 100 wolves. The 10 wolves targeted were a pack of eight and a pair.

But environmental groups, who have tried to hamper the hunt by camping out in bone-chilling temperatures, say there are only 30 to 40 wolves in Norway. The Environment Ministry has received about 9,000 protests via E-mail.

The surviving wolf has been widely dubbed "Martin" after Martin Schanche, a veteran Norwegian rally driver who is one of its most ardent defenders. As a stunt, he even filed papers seeking political asylum for the animal in Sweden.

(Reuter)