Here, we make available basic sample code for the statistical survival analyses employed in our m... more Here, we make available basic sample code for the statistical survival analyses employed in our manuscript. This code should allow for replication of analyses at all spatial scales for all datasets involved. This sample code does not include code lines for dropping or adding observations, which we did for the alternate datasets used. However, this should only involve basic coding, and descriptions of observations included or dropped for each dataset can be found in the study.
Equation 3 of this paper contained a mistake that was replicated in Table 2. The corrections are ... more Equation 3 of this paper contained a mistake that was replicated in Table 2. The corrections are reproduced below.
Many carnivore populations escaped extinction during the twentieth century as a result of legal p... more Many carnivore populations escaped extinction during the twentieth century as a result of legal protections, habitat restoration, and changes in public attitudes. However, encounters between carnivores, livestock, and humans are increasing in some areas, raising concerns about the costs of carnivore conservation. We present a method to predict sites of human-carnivore conflicts regionally, using as an example the mixed forest-agriculture landscapes of Wisconsin and Minnesota (U.S.A.). We used a matched-pair analysis of 17 landscape variables in a geographic information system to discriminate affected areas from unaffected areas at two spatial scales (townships and farms). Wolves (Canis lupus) selectively preyed on livestock in townships with high proportions of pasture and high densities of deer (Odocoileus virginianus) combined with low proportions of crop lands, coniferous forest, herbaceous wetlands, and open water. These variables plus road density and farm size also appeared to predict risk for individual farms when we considered Minnesota alone. In Wisconsin only, farm size, crop lands, and road density were associated with the risk of wolf attack on livestock. At the level of townships, we generated two statewide maps to predict the extent and location of future predation on livestock. Our approach can be applied wherever spatial data are available on sites of conflict between wildlife and humans.
Poaching is the main cause of mortality for many large carnivores, and mitigating it is imperativ... more Poaching is the main cause of mortality for many large carnivores, and mitigating it is imperative for the persistence of their populations. For Wisconsin gray wolves (Canis lupus), periods of increased risk in overall mortality and poaching seem to overlap temporally with legal hunting seasons for other large mammals (hunting wolves was prohibited). We analyzed monitoring data from adult, collared wolves in Wisconsin, USA (1979–2012, n = 495) using a competing-risk approach to test explicitly if seasons during which it was legal to train hunting hounds (hounding) or hunt other large mammals (hunting) affected wolves’ hazard of cause-specific mortality and disappearance. We found increases in hazard for disappearances and documented (‘reported’) poaching during seasons with hunting, hounding or snow cover relative to a season without these factors. The ‘reported poached’ hazard increased > 650% during seasons with hunting and snow cover, which may be due to a seasonal surge in nu...
The rapid extinction of species over the past few decades has created a biodiversity crisis. Fact... more The rapid extinction of species over the past few decades has created a biodiversity crisis. Factors contributing to recent extirpations are linked to increased human population growth, habitat loss and fragmentation, and overexploitation of wildlife. Only decisive, effective action to combat biodiversity loss can reverse these trends. The use of indicator species as surrogates for biodiversity provides a way to identify areas with high biodiversity so that conservation efforts can be accelerated and supported in those areas. Predators are considered important indicators of healthy, biodiverse ecosystems due to their high trophic level and their direct and indirect interaction with other species. Using camera trap data from 221 cameras set across five vegetation types and five land use zones in South Africa, we evaluated carnivores as potential surrogates for biodiversity. We used the leopard (Panthera pardus), and three meso-predators: caracal (Caracal caracal), honey badger (Mellivora capensis), and black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas), as candidate indicator species. We used mammals captured at the camera traps as a measure of biodiversity referred to as mammalian species richness. The mammalian species richness was highest in the Orange River Nama Karoo vegetation type and in privately owned game reserves. We found that predator sightings were associated with significantly higher mammalian species richness which increased with increasing number of predator species. These findings suggest that the surrogate species concept can be applied to leopard and meso-predators.
Worldwide, unsustainable use of nature threatens many ecosystems and the services they provide fo... more Worldwide, unsustainable use of nature threatens many ecosystems and the services they provide for a broad diversity of life, including humans. Yet, governments commonly claim that the best available science supports their policies governing extraction of natural resources. We confront this apparent paradox by assessing the complexity of the intersections among value judgments, fact claims, and scientifically verified facts. Science can only describe how nature works and predict the likely outcomes of our actions, whereas values influence which actions or objectives society ought to pursue. In the context of natural resource management, particularly of fisheries and wildlife, governments typically set population targets or use quotas. Although these are fundamentally value judgments about how much of a resource a group of people can extract, quotas are often justified as numerical guidance derived from abstracted, mathematical, or theoretical models of extraction. We confront such j...
Governments around the world invest considerable resources to reduce damages caused by large carn... more Governments around the world invest considerable resources to reduce damages caused by large carnivores on human property. To use these investments more efficiently and effectively, we need to understand which interventions successfully prevent such damages and which do not. In the European Union, the LIFE program represents by far the largest financial instrument to help EU Member States with the implementation of conservation activities, including mitigation of damages caused by large carnivores. However, we currently lack information about the effectiveness of this funding program in reducing carnivore damages. We reviewed 135 LIFE projects dealing with large carnivores between 1992 and 2019 to provide an overview of the use of damage prevention methods and evaluate their functional and perceived effectiveness. Methods evaluated ranged from non-lethal and lethal interventions, to information dissemination and compensation schemes. The largest number of the projects was focused on grey wolf (Canis lupus) and brown bears (Ursus arctos) in the Mediterranean countries and in Romania. Electric fences were reported as the most successful method for reducing damages by large carnivores, and most of the non-lethal methods used showed at least moderate effectiveness. However, standards of measuring and reporting effectiveness were in general relatively low, which limits our ability to measure actual impact. We urge project managers and evaluators to improve these standards, as well as the dissemination of the project results. We provide a list of recommendations for improving measuring and reporting success of implemented interventions for the benefit of future projects aimed to reduce damages caused by wildlife.
Transformed landscapes caused by human activity leave remnant patches of natural habitat for wild... more Transformed landscapes caused by human activity leave remnant patches of natural habitat for wildlife. The persistence of species in the face of such transformation depends on individuals’ ability to adapt to novel habitat, and to secure resources and reproductive opportunities despite habitat alterations. The leopard, Panthera pardus, is the last free-roaming top carnivore in South Africa whose high trophic status and wide-ranging movements make them an effective focal species in conservation planning. Using location data from leopards, we investigated key correlates of habitat selection in human-altered landscapes at two spatial scales. We compared sex-related differences and predicted how conspecific home range locations influenced habitat selection. Leopards avoided human-altered landscapes more strongly at the large spatial scale, where both sexes selected core areas near formally protected areas. Conspecific home range locations had a strong positive effect at both spatial sca...
Although poaching (illegal killing) is an important cause of death for large carnivores globally,... more Although poaching (illegal killing) is an important cause of death for large carnivores globally, the effect of lethal management policies on poaching is unknown for many populations. Two opposing hypotheses have been proposed: liberalizing killing may decrease poaching incidence (‘tolerance hunting’) or increase it (‘facilitated poaching’). For gray wolves in Wisconsin, USA, we evaluated how five causes of death and disappearances of monitored, adult wolves were influenced by policy changes. We found slight decreases in reported wolf poaching hazard and incidence during six liberalized killing periods, but that was outweighed by larger increases in hazard and incidence of disappearance. Although the observed increase in the hazard of disappearance cannot be definitively shown to have been caused by an increase in cryptic poaching, we discuss two additional independent lines of evidence making this the most likely explanation for changing incidence among n = 513 wolves’ deaths or di...
Carnivore predation on livestock often leads people to retaliate. Persecution by humans has contr... more Carnivore predation on livestock often leads people to retaliate. Persecution by humans has contributed strongly to global endangerment of carnivores. Preventing livestock losses would help to achieve three goals common to many human societies: preserve nature, protect animal welfare, and safeguard human livelihoods. Between 2016 and 2018, four independent reviews evaluated >40 years of research on lethal and nonlethal interventions for reducing predation on livestock. From 114 studies, we find a striking conclusion: scarce quantitative comparisons of interventions and scarce comparisons against experimental controls preclude strong inference about the effectiveness of methods. For wise investment of public resources in protecting livestock and carnivores, evidence of effectiveness should be a prerequisite to policy making or large-scale funding of any method or, at a minimum, should be measured during implementation. An appropriate evidence base is needed, and we recommend a coa...
Starting in the 1970s, many populations of large-bodied mammalian carnivores began to recover fro... more Starting in the 1970s, many populations of large-bodied mammalian carnivores began to recover from centuries of human-caused eradication and habitat destruction. The recovery of several such populations has since slowed or reversed due to mortality caused by humans. Illegal killing (poaching) is a primary cause of death in many carnivore populations. Law enforcement agencies face difficulties in preventing poaching and scientists face challenges in measuring it. Both challenges are exacerbated when evidence is concealed or ignored. We present data on deaths of 937 Wisconsin gray wolves (Canis lupus) from October 1979 to April 2012 during a period in which wolves were recolonizing historic range mainly under federal government protection. We found and partially remedied sampling and measurement biases in the source data by reexamining necropsy reports and reconstructing the numbers and causes of some wolf deaths that were never reported. From 431 deaths and disappearances of radiocollared wolves aged > 7.5 months, we estimated human causes accounted for two-thirds of reported and reconstructed deaths, including poaching in 39-45%, vehicle collisions in 13%, legal killing by state agents in 6%, and nonhuman causes in 36-42%. Our estimate of poaching remained an underestimate because of persistent sources of uncertainty and systematic underreporting. Unreported deaths accounted for over two-thirds of all mortality annually among wolves > 7.5 months old. One-half of all poached wolves went unreported, or > 80% of poached wolves not being monitored by radiotelemetry went unreported. The annual mortality rate averaged 18% ± 10% for monitored wolves but 47% ± 19% for unmonitored wolves. That difference appeared to be due largely to radiocollaring being concentrated in the core areas of wolf range, as well as higher rates of human-caused mortality in the periphery of wolf range. We detected an average 4% decline in wolf population growth in the last 5 years of the study. Because our estimates of poaching risk and overall mortality rate exceeded official estimates after 2012, we present all data for transparency and replication. More recent additions of public hunting quotas after 2012 appear unsustainable without effective curtailment of poaching. Effective antipoaching enforcement will require more accurate estimates of poaching rate, location, and timing than currently available. Independent scientific review of methods and data will improve antipoaching policies for large carnivore conservation, especially for controversial species facing high levels of human-induced mortality.
Numerous studies report majorities of survey respondents hold positive attitudes toward wolves. H... more Numerous studies report majorities of survey respondents hold positive attitudes toward wolves. However, a 2001-2009 panel study found declining tolerance of wolves among residents of Wisconsin's wolf range. Poaching, believed to be increasing, has been an important source of mortality in Wisconsin's wolf population since the 1980s. We conducted focus groups, with an accompanying anonymous questionnaire survey of participants, among farmers and hunters in Wisconsin's wolf range to gain a more indepth understanding of attitudes towards wolves and inclinations to poach wolves. Whereas our study was originally designed to examine the effects of an experimental lethal-control program on inclination to poach, oscillating wolf-management authority shifted our focus from a single intervention to a suite of changes in policy and management. Following federal delisting of the Western Great Lakes wolf population in January 2012, Wisconsin implemented lethal-depredation control and created the state's first legalized wolf-harvest season in October 2012. We convened focus groups before and after these changes. Pre-and post-survey results showed majorities of respondents held negative attitudes toward wolves with no decrease in inclination to poach, suggesting lethal-control measures, in the short term, may be ineffective for increasing tolerance. Participants expressed favorable attitudes toward lethal-control measures, but believed there were limitations in the implementation of the lethal-control measures. Focus group discussions revealed elements of positivity toward wolves not revealed by questionnaires, as well as several thematic areas, such as fear, empowerment, and trust, that may inform the development of interventions designed to increase tolerance of wolves and other controversial species.
SUMMARYIn many areas, wildlife managers are turning to hunting programmes to increase public acce... more SUMMARYIn many areas, wildlife managers are turning to hunting programmes to increase public acceptance of predators. This study examines attitudes measured before and after a hunting and trapping season (wolf hunt) in Wisconsin (WI), USA, and casts some doubt on whether such programmes actually promote public acceptance. In Wisconsin, attitudes toward wolves (Canis lupus) were recorded before and after the inaugural regulated wolf hunt. Measuring longitudinal changes is particularly important in assessing management interventions. The attitudes of 736 previous respondents were resampled in 2013. Changes in individual responses to statements about emotions, behavioural intentions, beliefs, and attitudes toward wolves and wolf management between 2009 and 2013 were assessed using a nine-item scaled variable called ‘tolerance’. Although the majority (66%) of wolf range respondents approved of the decision to hold the hunt, the results indicate a negative trend in attitudes toward wolve...
Here, we make available basic sample code for the statistical survival analyses employed in our m... more Here, we make available basic sample code for the statistical survival analyses employed in our manuscript. This code should allow for replication of analyses at all spatial scales for all datasets involved. This sample code does not include code lines for dropping or adding observations, which we did for the alternate datasets used. However, this should only involve basic coding, and descriptions of observations included or dropped for each dataset can be found in the study.
Equation 3 of this paper contained a mistake that was replicated in Table 2. The corrections are ... more Equation 3 of this paper contained a mistake that was replicated in Table 2. The corrections are reproduced below.
Many carnivore populations escaped extinction during the twentieth century as a result of legal p... more Many carnivore populations escaped extinction during the twentieth century as a result of legal protections, habitat restoration, and changes in public attitudes. However, encounters between carnivores, livestock, and humans are increasing in some areas, raising concerns about the costs of carnivore conservation. We present a method to predict sites of human-carnivore conflicts regionally, using as an example the mixed forest-agriculture landscapes of Wisconsin and Minnesota (U.S.A.). We used a matched-pair analysis of 17 landscape variables in a geographic information system to discriminate affected areas from unaffected areas at two spatial scales (townships and farms). Wolves (Canis lupus) selectively preyed on livestock in townships with high proportions of pasture and high densities of deer (Odocoileus virginianus) combined with low proportions of crop lands, coniferous forest, herbaceous wetlands, and open water. These variables plus road density and farm size also appeared to predict risk for individual farms when we considered Minnesota alone. In Wisconsin only, farm size, crop lands, and road density were associated with the risk of wolf attack on livestock. At the level of townships, we generated two statewide maps to predict the extent and location of future predation on livestock. Our approach can be applied wherever spatial data are available on sites of conflict between wildlife and humans.
Poaching is the main cause of mortality for many large carnivores, and mitigating it is imperativ... more Poaching is the main cause of mortality for many large carnivores, and mitigating it is imperative for the persistence of their populations. For Wisconsin gray wolves (Canis lupus), periods of increased risk in overall mortality and poaching seem to overlap temporally with legal hunting seasons for other large mammals (hunting wolves was prohibited). We analyzed monitoring data from adult, collared wolves in Wisconsin, USA (1979–2012, n = 495) using a competing-risk approach to test explicitly if seasons during which it was legal to train hunting hounds (hounding) or hunt other large mammals (hunting) affected wolves’ hazard of cause-specific mortality and disappearance. We found increases in hazard for disappearances and documented (‘reported’) poaching during seasons with hunting, hounding or snow cover relative to a season without these factors. The ‘reported poached’ hazard increased > 650% during seasons with hunting and snow cover, which may be due to a seasonal surge in nu...
The rapid extinction of species over the past few decades has created a biodiversity crisis. Fact... more The rapid extinction of species over the past few decades has created a biodiversity crisis. Factors contributing to recent extirpations are linked to increased human population growth, habitat loss and fragmentation, and overexploitation of wildlife. Only decisive, effective action to combat biodiversity loss can reverse these trends. The use of indicator species as surrogates for biodiversity provides a way to identify areas with high biodiversity so that conservation efforts can be accelerated and supported in those areas. Predators are considered important indicators of healthy, biodiverse ecosystems due to their high trophic level and their direct and indirect interaction with other species. Using camera trap data from 221 cameras set across five vegetation types and five land use zones in South Africa, we evaluated carnivores as potential surrogates for biodiversity. We used the leopard (Panthera pardus), and three meso-predators: caracal (Caracal caracal), honey badger (Mellivora capensis), and black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas), as candidate indicator species. We used mammals captured at the camera traps as a measure of biodiversity referred to as mammalian species richness. The mammalian species richness was highest in the Orange River Nama Karoo vegetation type and in privately owned game reserves. We found that predator sightings were associated with significantly higher mammalian species richness which increased with increasing number of predator species. These findings suggest that the surrogate species concept can be applied to leopard and meso-predators.
Worldwide, unsustainable use of nature threatens many ecosystems and the services they provide fo... more Worldwide, unsustainable use of nature threatens many ecosystems and the services they provide for a broad diversity of life, including humans. Yet, governments commonly claim that the best available science supports their policies governing extraction of natural resources. We confront this apparent paradox by assessing the complexity of the intersections among value judgments, fact claims, and scientifically verified facts. Science can only describe how nature works and predict the likely outcomes of our actions, whereas values influence which actions or objectives society ought to pursue. In the context of natural resource management, particularly of fisheries and wildlife, governments typically set population targets or use quotas. Although these are fundamentally value judgments about how much of a resource a group of people can extract, quotas are often justified as numerical guidance derived from abstracted, mathematical, or theoretical models of extraction. We confront such j...
Governments around the world invest considerable resources to reduce damages caused by large carn... more Governments around the world invest considerable resources to reduce damages caused by large carnivores on human property. To use these investments more efficiently and effectively, we need to understand which interventions successfully prevent such damages and which do not. In the European Union, the LIFE program represents by far the largest financial instrument to help EU Member States with the implementation of conservation activities, including mitigation of damages caused by large carnivores. However, we currently lack information about the effectiveness of this funding program in reducing carnivore damages. We reviewed 135 LIFE projects dealing with large carnivores between 1992 and 2019 to provide an overview of the use of damage prevention methods and evaluate their functional and perceived effectiveness. Methods evaluated ranged from non-lethal and lethal interventions, to information dissemination and compensation schemes. The largest number of the projects was focused on grey wolf (Canis lupus) and brown bears (Ursus arctos) in the Mediterranean countries and in Romania. Electric fences were reported as the most successful method for reducing damages by large carnivores, and most of the non-lethal methods used showed at least moderate effectiveness. However, standards of measuring and reporting effectiveness were in general relatively low, which limits our ability to measure actual impact. We urge project managers and evaluators to improve these standards, as well as the dissemination of the project results. We provide a list of recommendations for improving measuring and reporting success of implemented interventions for the benefit of future projects aimed to reduce damages caused by wildlife.
Transformed landscapes caused by human activity leave remnant patches of natural habitat for wild... more Transformed landscapes caused by human activity leave remnant patches of natural habitat for wildlife. The persistence of species in the face of such transformation depends on individuals’ ability to adapt to novel habitat, and to secure resources and reproductive opportunities despite habitat alterations. The leopard, Panthera pardus, is the last free-roaming top carnivore in South Africa whose high trophic status and wide-ranging movements make them an effective focal species in conservation planning. Using location data from leopards, we investigated key correlates of habitat selection in human-altered landscapes at two spatial scales. We compared sex-related differences and predicted how conspecific home range locations influenced habitat selection. Leopards avoided human-altered landscapes more strongly at the large spatial scale, where both sexes selected core areas near formally protected areas. Conspecific home range locations had a strong positive effect at both spatial sca...
Although poaching (illegal killing) is an important cause of death for large carnivores globally,... more Although poaching (illegal killing) is an important cause of death for large carnivores globally, the effect of lethal management policies on poaching is unknown for many populations. Two opposing hypotheses have been proposed: liberalizing killing may decrease poaching incidence (‘tolerance hunting’) or increase it (‘facilitated poaching’). For gray wolves in Wisconsin, USA, we evaluated how five causes of death and disappearances of monitored, adult wolves were influenced by policy changes. We found slight decreases in reported wolf poaching hazard and incidence during six liberalized killing periods, but that was outweighed by larger increases in hazard and incidence of disappearance. Although the observed increase in the hazard of disappearance cannot be definitively shown to have been caused by an increase in cryptic poaching, we discuss two additional independent lines of evidence making this the most likely explanation for changing incidence among n = 513 wolves’ deaths or di...
Carnivore predation on livestock often leads people to retaliate. Persecution by humans has contr... more Carnivore predation on livestock often leads people to retaliate. Persecution by humans has contributed strongly to global endangerment of carnivores. Preventing livestock losses would help to achieve three goals common to many human societies: preserve nature, protect animal welfare, and safeguard human livelihoods. Between 2016 and 2018, four independent reviews evaluated >40 years of research on lethal and nonlethal interventions for reducing predation on livestock. From 114 studies, we find a striking conclusion: scarce quantitative comparisons of interventions and scarce comparisons against experimental controls preclude strong inference about the effectiveness of methods. For wise investment of public resources in protecting livestock and carnivores, evidence of effectiveness should be a prerequisite to policy making or large-scale funding of any method or, at a minimum, should be measured during implementation. An appropriate evidence base is needed, and we recommend a coa...
Starting in the 1970s, many populations of large-bodied mammalian carnivores began to recover fro... more Starting in the 1970s, many populations of large-bodied mammalian carnivores began to recover from centuries of human-caused eradication and habitat destruction. The recovery of several such populations has since slowed or reversed due to mortality caused by humans. Illegal killing (poaching) is a primary cause of death in many carnivore populations. Law enforcement agencies face difficulties in preventing poaching and scientists face challenges in measuring it. Both challenges are exacerbated when evidence is concealed or ignored. We present data on deaths of 937 Wisconsin gray wolves (Canis lupus) from October 1979 to April 2012 during a period in which wolves were recolonizing historic range mainly under federal government protection. We found and partially remedied sampling and measurement biases in the source data by reexamining necropsy reports and reconstructing the numbers and causes of some wolf deaths that were never reported. From 431 deaths and disappearances of radiocollared wolves aged > 7.5 months, we estimated human causes accounted for two-thirds of reported and reconstructed deaths, including poaching in 39-45%, vehicle collisions in 13%, legal killing by state agents in 6%, and nonhuman causes in 36-42%. Our estimate of poaching remained an underestimate because of persistent sources of uncertainty and systematic underreporting. Unreported deaths accounted for over two-thirds of all mortality annually among wolves > 7.5 months old. One-half of all poached wolves went unreported, or > 80% of poached wolves not being monitored by radiotelemetry went unreported. The annual mortality rate averaged 18% ± 10% for monitored wolves but 47% ± 19% for unmonitored wolves. That difference appeared to be due largely to radiocollaring being concentrated in the core areas of wolf range, as well as higher rates of human-caused mortality in the periphery of wolf range. We detected an average 4% decline in wolf population growth in the last 5 years of the study. Because our estimates of poaching risk and overall mortality rate exceeded official estimates after 2012, we present all data for transparency and replication. More recent additions of public hunting quotas after 2012 appear unsustainable without effective curtailment of poaching. Effective antipoaching enforcement will require more accurate estimates of poaching rate, location, and timing than currently available. Independent scientific review of methods and data will improve antipoaching policies for large carnivore conservation, especially for controversial species facing high levels of human-induced mortality.
Numerous studies report majorities of survey respondents hold positive attitudes toward wolves. H... more Numerous studies report majorities of survey respondents hold positive attitudes toward wolves. However, a 2001-2009 panel study found declining tolerance of wolves among residents of Wisconsin's wolf range. Poaching, believed to be increasing, has been an important source of mortality in Wisconsin's wolf population since the 1980s. We conducted focus groups, with an accompanying anonymous questionnaire survey of participants, among farmers and hunters in Wisconsin's wolf range to gain a more indepth understanding of attitudes towards wolves and inclinations to poach wolves. Whereas our study was originally designed to examine the effects of an experimental lethal-control program on inclination to poach, oscillating wolf-management authority shifted our focus from a single intervention to a suite of changes in policy and management. Following federal delisting of the Western Great Lakes wolf population in January 2012, Wisconsin implemented lethal-depredation control and created the state's first legalized wolf-harvest season in October 2012. We convened focus groups before and after these changes. Pre-and post-survey results showed majorities of respondents held negative attitudes toward wolves with no decrease in inclination to poach, suggesting lethal-control measures, in the short term, may be ineffective for increasing tolerance. Participants expressed favorable attitudes toward lethal-control measures, but believed there were limitations in the implementation of the lethal-control measures. Focus group discussions revealed elements of positivity toward wolves not revealed by questionnaires, as well as several thematic areas, such as fear, empowerment, and trust, that may inform the development of interventions designed to increase tolerance of wolves and other controversial species.
SUMMARYIn many areas, wildlife managers are turning to hunting programmes to increase public acce... more SUMMARYIn many areas, wildlife managers are turning to hunting programmes to increase public acceptance of predators. This study examines attitudes measured before and after a hunting and trapping season (wolf hunt) in Wisconsin (WI), USA, and casts some doubt on whether such programmes actually promote public acceptance. In Wisconsin, attitudes toward wolves (Canis lupus) were recorded before and after the inaugural regulated wolf hunt. Measuring longitudinal changes is particularly important in assessing management interventions. The attitudes of 736 previous respondents were resampled in 2013. Changes in individual responses to statements about emotions, behavioural intentions, beliefs, and attitudes toward wolves and wolf management between 2009 and 2013 were assessed using a nine-item scaled variable called ‘tolerance’. Although the majority (66%) of wolf range respondents approved of the decision to hold the hunt, the results indicate a negative trend in attitudes toward wolve...
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