Backlash to Rewilding: Are wolves and bears a threat to cities?
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has proposed to downgrade the status of wolves in Europe to allow their their numbers to be reduced through culling. Eurasian wolves were hunted to local extinction in many western European countries over centuries but small populations held on in eastern Europe. Since 1982, the wolf has been legally protected from persecution. Since then, wolf numbers have bounced back to 21,500 individuals, with populations spreading through forest corridors into France, Italy, Netherlands and Switzerland, among other nations.
For some, this is a feel-good conservation story but for others, the return of wolves comes with trepidation and fear. Wolves kill tens of thousands of livestock each year, which is obviously a concern for farmers. It seems that pressure from farming and hunting groups has contributed to von der Leyen’s unprecedented move to reduce a successful conservation measure.
These articles from The Guardian and WWF do a good job of laying out the facts. To summarise:
von der Leyen’s proposal is politically motivated, not based on scientific evidence.
In most European regions, wolves have not yet reached favourable conservation status, meaning their numbers should be allowed to increase further.
A recent poll found that across 10 EU member states, 68% of rural inhabitants support strict protections for wolves.
Reducing wolf numbers through culling is not a particularly successful way of preventing livestock attacks, unless you wipe out the entire local population. More effective methods include wolf-proof fencing and livestock-guarding dogs, which allow more peaceful coexistence.
(I spoke to a biologist about some of these solutions on this episode of the podcast: Tiago de Zoeten (Mossy Earth) - Using Reforestation and Rewilding to fight Climate Change)
The fight is far from over. 300 organisations signed an open letter criticising the proposed change in law and passing the bill will require the unanimous support of all EU members.
Human-wildlife conflicts in cities
So, what about urban areas? The WWF reports that Eurasian wolves do not view humans as prey and there have been no fatal attacks on humans in the 21st century. A study of wolf attacks in Europe and North America over a period of 18 years found that “the risks associated with a wolf attack are above zero, but far too low to calculate”. Although wolves do sometimes come in close proximity to urban areas in Europe, the likelihood of attacks on humans is incredibly low.
For some people, even one attack will be too many to tolerate the presence of large predators in our landscapes. If I was the one attacked, I’d probably agree. A recent example is the tragic death of a jogger in northern Italy from a wild bear attack, which led to a public backlash and call for bear culls. This attack, along with several other non-fatal bear attacks, occurred in the countryside around Trento, a city of 100,000 people. I have no doubt this is concerning (if not terrifying) for the locals in this city.
Some perspective on risk
So, we can say that there is some risk to the presence of large predators in densely populated regions. Let’s balance that risk against the dangerous things we do every day without thinking twice. In Europe in 2022, 20,600 people died in car crashes. Yet nobody is calling for the outlawing of motor vehicles (except for certain green urbanists of course!). Similarly, 10 million people die annually around the world from illness related to air pollution, largely caused by the energy, industry and transport sectors.
The obvious response may be that we don’t need wolves and bears, whereas we do need cars, industry and fossil energy. But from an ecological perspective, the opposite is true. Large predators don’t just have an inherent value and a right to live, they also play a key role in maintaining ecosystem health and biodiversity. As keystone species, they regulate the numbers and movement of herbivores like deer, which prevents them from overgrazing land. Look at the example of the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park for a great example of the landscape-level benefits these apex predators bring. From a rewilding perspective, if we want to guarantee a safe and healthy environment for the future, we need more wild animals and intact ecosystems, not less.
“Where the wolf hunts, the forest grows” - Russian proverb
Learning from international examples
That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t help the residents in Trento or other cities in close proximity to large predators. Perhaps we can learn from regions that have lived alongside these animals for centuries. In Europe, we drove so many large fauna to local extinction centuries ago that we suffer from ‘shifting baseline syndrome’; we think of our current ecologically degraded state as normal. However, in regions where these extinctions haven’t happened (or on a lesser scale), urbanites have learned to live alongside “big nature”.
When we visited British Columbia, Canada, a few years ago, my partner and I were nervous about hiking in the mountains with Grizzly and Brown Bears around. Speaking to the locals, we realised that we really didn’t need to worry as long as we adapted our behaviour. The locals explained that bears don’t want to interact with humans so it’s customary to clap your hands or shout ‘Hey Bear!’ into the woods regularly as you walk. This will avoid the potentially fatal situation of catching a grizzly by surprise. As a last resort, many people also carry bear spray, a kind of high octane pepper spray, in case of an aggressive encounter. While camping, there are also guidelines on how to store food so it doesn’t attract bears at night. All of this was second nature to local people and it didn’t stop them going out and enjoying nature or respecting the lives of large predators.
I am encouraged by the work of ‘Rewilding Apennines’ in Italy, a rewilding initiative that is promoting peaceful co-existence between human communities and Marsican brown bears and other wildlife. Let’s hope this philosophy and vital work spreads across the continent.
I speak more on this topic on Green Urbanist podcast episode #68: Urban Rewilding
The Wild with Chris Morgan podcast has great episodes on this theme. Here’s a few I loved:
What are your thoughts on this? Let me know in the comments or hit reply to this email.
Ross