The wolves are back! Local attitudes towards the recently re-populated grey wolf and wolf management in Bükk National Park, Hungary

Abstract

Parallel to trends in North America and elsewhere in Europe, the number of large carnivores is slowly increasing in Hungary, including within the Bükk National Park (BNP). After almost a century of absence, the wolf (Canis lupus) re-entered the BNP in 2010, and human-wolf conflicts of livestock depredation and competition for wild game immediately followed. Local acceptance is a key factor in successful large carnivore conservation and coexistence. Utilizing a household questionnaire administered in 3 local villages and semistructured interviews with key stakeholders, in this exploratory study we assessed local attitudes and the suite of demographic, socio-economic, and cultural variables which shape them, and their implications towards wolf management in BNP. Our results are similar to global trends, namely attitudes are varied towards institutions responsible for wolf management, and towards wolves themselves with Wolf Attitude Index values ranging from -20 to 22 (M = 0.59, SD = 10.874, n = 51) reflecting positive, neutral and negative sentiments. We demonstrate that attitudes towards wolves are largely determined by communication channels concerning wolf knowledge and hunting orientation. These factors are discussed, along with recommendations towards expanded research and enhanced coexistence.

The Return of Large Carnivores and Extensive Farming Systems: A Review of Stakeholders’ Perception at an EU Level

“…Of particular interest are the results obtained in terms of attitude comparisons between periods as far as conservationists are concerned. Contrary to the first period in which only positive attitudes were reported, during the second one, one negative [67] and two neutral attitudes [22,59] were registered. Niedziałkowski and Putkowska-Smoter (2020) [67] stated that some foresters benefitted from organising wolf hunts for Polish and international hunters, while others believe in and recognize the ecological value of wolves within the ecosystem (i.e., through limiting ungulate densities, they indirectly have a positive impact on forest plantations).…”

“…However, at the local and regional levels, foresters did not particularly endorse wolf protection and sometimes outright criticized conservation initiatives. Anthony and Tarr (2019) [59] declared that some park members perceived the presence of wolves as positive since they reduce the number of damaging species such as wild boar, beyond removing weak and/or sick animals. On the other hand, others believe that all wolves should be killed or confined to zoos.…”

“…The size of the grey bars depends on the number of responses obtained by each stakeholder category for each attitude (refer to Figure3caption for a more detailed explanation). Reference list:[34,[39][40][41][42][52][53][54]57,59,60,66,68,[72][73][74].…”