Wolves ‘invade’ remote Russian village

Worried families in a remote part of Russia have written to teachers requesting their children be allowed to dial into classes from the safety of their homes, after warnings wild wolf attacks had turned the area into a bloodbath.

Footage from a CCTV camera in the village of Zelenoborsk, in the Khanty-Mansi region of Central Russia, shared by a local residents group on Monday, shows several of the large canines stalking its snow-covered roads.

According to Moscow’s Lenta news site, the “wolf invasion” has sparked fears for schoolchildren, with parents asking teachers to let their kids move to distance learning until the problem is resolved. Locals are urging the authorities to take action, reporting sightings to municipal officials.

One resident insisted that packs had been spotted last December before several dogs disappeared from outside homes. “This year the predators began visiting in August. Then, in October, they began ripping the dogs from their chains and dragging them into the forest, through the snow. The whole village is covered in blood,” the woman told reporters.

Olga Kalugina, the director of Zelenoborsk’s local school, said that “the situation is dangerous – I see wolf tracks all the time, from where they have paced around houses.” The most important thing, she said, was her pupils’ safety.

Last month, one of the four-legged predators was tracked by Emergency Ministry employees after being spotted near a children’s playground in the city of Ufa, around 1,000 miles south of Zelenoborsk. Several officers were bitten before they were able to capture the wolf and release it into the wild.

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