The first attempt to carry out a controversial cull of wolves in Norway has been disrupted by animal rights protesters.

A spokesman for the Worldwide Fund for Nature said its members skied through the forest near Hanestad, where hunters were tracking nine grey wolves, in order to break up the hunt.

There are fewer that one hundred grey wolves in Scandanavia and the spokesman said the group will continue to disrupt further attempts to track down the wolves.

The hunters have been given until April to kill the wolves by the Norwegian government acting on complaints from local sheep farmers.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service