  We report the discovery of emission from Wolf-Rayet stars in a giant HII
region 4.5 arcsec South of the nucleus of the IRAS barred spiral galaxy Mrk
712. The ratio of WNL to OV stars, estimated from the luminosity of the HeII
4686 line, is 0.2. By comparison with starburst and stellar evolution models,
we find that this high value is only compatible with a very young starburst
episode (3 - 4 Myr) and a flat initial mass function (Gamma = -1). The presence
of the [ArV] line reveals that the HII region is strongly ionized by the hot
Wolf-Rayet stars. The comparison with other barred Wolf-Rayet galaxies suggests
that the detection of Wolf-Rayet stars depends on the dust content and
orientation of the galaxy.
