Wolf sightings have more than doubled across Finland during the first half of the year, according to Olli Kursula, a local game manager at the Finnish Wildlife Agency.
"The sightings have generally doubled compared to previous years," he explained.
The incidents include wolf sightings in the wild as well as in people's yards.
So far this year, there have been 12,000 reported wolf sightings in nature and 4,000 reports of wolves visiting people's yards across the country. During January-May of last year, there were 5,200 reported sightings and 1,500 yard visits.
Wolves have visited residential properties most often in Southwest Finland, but there have also been many sightings from Uusimaa, Satakunta and Ostrobothnia, as well as southern areas of North Karelia, according to Kursula.
Wolf sightings have recently become a nearly daily occurrence around Juulia Piippo's horse stable in South Ostrobothnia.
The stable's oldest horse, Lilli, is expected to start foaling in a couple of weeks. The visiting wolves regularly startle the horse, according to Piippo, who added that she would like local game authorities to take care of the problem.
She said that there have been 22 reports of wolves visiting yards within a five-kilometre radius of the village of Orismala over just a few weeks.
"We've reported the visits to the emergency centre, as police have instructed. I think a pack lives nearby," she explained.
Piippo said she thinks it is time for the police to intervene.
Late last year, an EU Committee downgraded the protective status of wolves from "strictly protected" to "protected". On Tuesday, it was reported that an Yle survey found a majority of Finnish MPs prepared to make a similar decision about the predators, after the European Parliament formally changed the animals' protective status last month.
Decisions about the wolves' protective status is now up to each member state.
Sauli Härkönen from the Finnish Wildlife Agency said he expects that intense debate about the animals' status will continue, and that the issue will be taken up by Finnish lawmakers in the autumn.
Härkönen said that game managers need to consider a number of factors when deciding whether to intervene in wolf sightings.
"Does [the animal] visit people's yards regularly or does it keep 100 to 200 metres away? It's also good to know whether the animal comes at night or during the day, and how it behaves when people are around. Does it leave immediately, or does it stay and watch?" Härkönen explained.
In any case, he said that wolf sightings should always be reported to the authorities or wildlife agency staff.
"Doing that helps maintain situational awareness. Assessments are made as to whether special measures might be needed, based on those observations," he said.
