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The Attitude towards the Wolf

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The Attitude towards the Wolf

They may seem very intelligent and enticing to look at but wolf can kill with just one brawl.

Historically for those identify with the hunting activities, will for sure attest to it that wolfs are

the most specially designed for social hunting, very intelligent and do educate their young ones.

They are globally identified as the Canis lupus and are mainly found in the Eurasia and the North

America. It’s a one species that do shows very high levels of intelligence in animals that are

caring, cheerful and most importantly devoted to family. They move in groups of two partners

together with their children but once the off springs grow they move to form their own cluster.

Wolfs may portray a very loving ways of survival lifestyle, they however a very dangerous wild

animal that is very much as such the wolf’s relationship with human is very much strained. And

hence it goes without forgetting to pose the question what do you think of the human attitude

towards the creature? In regards to this, we seek to explore the mental outlook of the general

public towards the wolf.

1
Arbieu, Ugo, Marion Mehring, Nils Bunnefeld, Petra Kaczensky, Ilka Reinhardt, Hermann

Ansorge, Katrin Böhning-Gaese et al. "Attitudes towards returning wolves (Canis lupus) in

Germany: Exposure, information sources and trust matter." Biological Conservation 234 (2019):

202-210.
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A number of studies done on the relationship between the wolf and the human beings

clearly lays out a number of factors that are likely to influence one’s feeling towards the wolf.

Those factors will definitely tell if they will like the animal or they will despise the animal. Some

of these issues may include; age of the person or group, presence and proximity of the wolf,

socio-economic activities, area of residence just but to mention a few.

Closeness and existence of the wolf; people living close to areas where wolfs occur or are

daily contact with the wolf tend or bend in most cases towards a negative feel about the animal

.they show a great dislike for the wolf. This is way contrary to the other lot of people who live

away from the wolf. They are in most cases very positive about the wolf. Karlsson and Sjostrom

makes it very elaborate when they brings in the real picture of the Beskydy Mountains where

they says that the visitors to the region were more positive compare to the natives of the area

about the wolf.2

2
Randler, Christoph, Annkathrin Wagner, Alena Rögele, Eberhard Hummel, and Iztok Tomažič.

"Attitudes toward and Knowledge about Wolves in SW German Secondary School Pupils from

within and outside an Area Occupied by Wolves (Canis lupus)." Animals 10, no. 4 (2020): 607.

Bindke, Johanna Daniela, Andrea Springer, Elisabeth Janecek-Erfurth, Michael Böer, and Christina

Strube. "Helminth infections of wild European gray wolves (Canis lupus Linnaeus, 1758) in Lower

Saxony, Germany, and comparison to captive wolves." Parasitology research 118, no. 2 (2019):

701-706.
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Experience; here people who has had more experience with the wolf in the past exhibit a

more negative attitude compare to those that maybe have no experiences. This also goes hand in

hand with the age. Most people who had experience with the wolf are to be old and hence very

negative while the young people are deemed to have a spot for the animate. Studies show that

people who had a negative attitude in the back time still hold on the attitude up-to-date, there is

no significant change as illustrated by Enck and Brown 2002 this is after he found that his

statistical findings were not that different from that done by Duda et al.

Economic activities; most of the ancient people were involved in activities such as

hunting and gathering together with farming which were main source of livelihood. Hunters were

much negative towards the wolves this is as a result of parties being involved in an interest

clashing activities. The wolfs would kill the hunter’s dog at the same time they all competed for

the game meat.so the hunters are most likely they did have a very negative response towards the

wolf.moreso wolf pose a threat to the safety of the hunter at the same time while threatening for

the farmers especially those who kept domestic animals as wolfs could easily attack them.

3
Hamilton, Lawrence C., Joanna E. Lambert, Lydia Anne Lawhon, Jonathan Salerno, and Joel

Hartter. "Wolves are back: Sociopolitical identity and opinions on management of Canis

lupus." Conservation Science and Practice 2, no. 7 (2020): e213.

Gable, Thomas D., Steve K. Windels, John G. Bruggink, and Austin T. Homkes. "Where and how wolves

(Canis lupus) kill beavers (Castor canadensis)." PLoS One 11, no. 12 (2016): e016553
 5

Residence: by this majorly it’s about the area one residence. This can be classified as

either urban residence or rural residence. Many studies show that those living in urban actively

exhibit a friendlier attitude on contact or mention of the wolf much more than their rural

counterparts (Williams et al. 2002). However this is not the case everywhere ,there are a few

regions where statistically there are no proves that people staying in rural areas hate the animate

while those from urban regions love the animate in fact it shows that the reaction from both

regions seem to be same just as indicated by Ericsson and Heberlen (Ericsson & Heberlein

2003).he goes on to state that in fact those who were kins of the parents who themselves had

been given birth to and raised in the cities demonstrated a more negative attitude. Similarly to

those urban dwellers that hardly had any connections to the rural area in terms of regular travels

maybe to a second home or just for the purpose of enjoyment, have shown a very negative

attitude towards the wolf .therefore it’s just in the right order to say that if urbanization continues

and the number urban people goes up its likely that the negative attitude is likely to go up.as a

result of this ,it’s not very elaborate if coming growth of cities is likely to result in a more

positive attitude towards the as it’s supposed to be courtesy of the simple rule of migration.

Having mentioned all the factors that really did influence people’s perception towards the

wolf, and noting of a more inclination towards negative, it’s just in order to look at methodology

if any on how the attitude could be altered from negative to positive. First to start with, educating

the public as a way that has proved very effective especially when dealing with socio-economic

problems. It’s said that most people express their feelings towards the wolf based on the mere

assumption but don’t really have real facts to support their thinking. People who knew not so

much about the wolf were found to be very positive about the animate. People who already have
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a formed opinion that they already love or hate the animate are the most likely to go digging up

more information on the animal but they are least likely to change their stand on the animal.

Cohort effects; by this it actually means that the level of negative attitude in regards to

age is likely to decrease with the passing time. Most people found showing negative attitude

towards the wolf were of the old age and thus as time goes they are likely to die reducing in their

numbers which corresponds to decrease in the negativity on the contrary most young people have

shown a very positive attitude and they are not expected to change that any time soon.as

population ages and the number of young people increases, it should result in increased positive

attitude. Moving on people in urban should maintain a constant contact with the countryside as

this is highly associated with more tolerance attitude towards the wolves. And this has a high

possibility of gaining more support for the wolf.

In closing remarks, we can state that the wolf is one animate that is very intelligent,

caring and most importantly values family. However it has had a very strained relationship with

human beings all along. Having looked at the attitude towards the wolf, we can say that a good

number of people a very uncomfortable coming in contact with the wolf. However, there are

ways in which this attitude can be swayed from negative to positive, it’s not assured.4

4
Iliopoulos, Yorgos, Christos Astaras, Yorgos Lazarou, Maria Petridou, Savas Kazantzidis, and

Matthias Waltert. "Tools for co-existence: fladry corrals efficiently repel wild wolves (Canis lupus)

from experimental baiting sites." Wildlife Research 46, no. 6 (2019): 484-498.

DeCandia, Alexandra L., Edward C. Schrom, Ellen E. Brandell, Daniel R. Stahler, and Bridgett M.

vonHoldt. "Sarcoptic mange severity is associated with reduced genomic variation and evidence

of selection in Yellowstone National Park wolves (Canis lupus)." Evolutionary Applications (2020

 7

Bibliography

Arbieu, Ugo, Marion Mehring, Nils Bunnefeld, Petra Kaczensky, Ilka Reinhardt, Hermann Ansorge, Katrin

Böhning-Gaese et al. "Attitudes towards returning wolves (Canis lupus) in Germany: Exposure,

information sources and trust matter." Biological Conservation 234 (2019): 202-210.

Randler, Christoph, Annkathrin Wagner, Alena Rögele, Eberhard Hummel, and Iztok Tomažič. "Attitudes

toward and Knowledge about Wolves in SW German Secondary School Pupils from within and

outside an Area Occupied by Wolves (Canis lupus)." Animals 10, no. 4 (2020): 607.

Hamilton, Lawrence C., Joanna E. Lambert, Lydia Anne Lawhon, Jonathan Salerno, and Joel Hartter.

"Wolves are back: Sociopolitical identity and opinions on management of Canis

lupus." Conservation Science and Practice 2, no. 7 (2020): e213.

Gable, Thomas D., Steve K. Windels, John G. Bruggink, and Austin T. Homkes. "Where and how wolves

(Canis lupus) kill beavers (Castor canadensis)." PLoS One 11, no. 12 (2016): e0165537.
 8

Hermosilla, Carlos, Sonja Kleinertz, Liliana MR Silva, Jörg Hirzmann, Djuro Huber, Josip Kusak, and Anja

Taubert. "Protozoan and helminth parasite fauna of free-living Croatian wild wolves (Canis lupus)

analyzed by scat collection." Veterinary Parasitology 233 (2017): 14-19.

Bindke, Johanna Daniela, Andrea Springer, Elisabeth Janecek-Erfurth, Michael Böer, and Christina

Strube. "Helminth infections of wild European gray wolves (Canis lupus Linnaeus, 1758) in Lower

Saxony, Germany, and comparison to captive wolves." Parasitology research 118, no. 2 (2019):

701-706.

Iliopoulos, Yorgos, Christos Astaras, Yorgos Lazarou, Maria Petridou, Savas Kazantzidis, and Matthias

Waltert. "Tools for co-existence: fladry corrals efficiently repel wild wolves (Canis lupus) from

experimental baiting sites." Wildlife Research 46, no. 6 (2019): 484-498.

DeCandia, Alexandra L., Edward C. Schrom, Ellen E. Brandell, Daniel R. Stahler, and Bridgett M.

vonHoldt. "Sarcoptic mange severity is associated with reduced genomic variation and evidence

of selection in Yellowstone National Park wolves (Canis lupus)." Evolutionary Applications (2020).