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This page provides links to scientific literature and publications of other initiatives on large carnivores in Europe, large carnivore management, conservation, and their coexistence with humans. The library is regularly updated.
If you have publications you would like highlighted on this site, please contact the Secretariat of the Platform by e-mail.
Search here for species, country, author or topics related to European large carnivores:
| Date | Title | Description | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 2022 | Wildlife Comeback Report: Opportunities and challenges for species recovery | A new and updated Wildlife Comeback Report, involving 50 European wildlife species, Commissioned by Rewilding Europe. It highlights species that have made a comeback in Europe over the last 40 to 50 years, explores the reasons behind their recovery, and provides an outlook for future recovery of European wildlife. The report further highlights species showing a particular strong comeback including grey wolves and brown bears. Data has been compiled by the Zoological Society of London, BirdLife International and the European Bird Census Council. | S.E.H. Ledger et al. for: Rewilding Europe |
| 2022 | Non-consumptive use of wolves in tourism: guidelines for responsible practices [Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe IUCN/SSC Specialist Group] Specialist Group | The following guidelines were prepared by members of the LIFE WOLFALPS EU project group and the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe expert group of the IUCN/SSC to set specific recommendations for responsible non-consumptive use of wolves in tourism which has as little impact on wolves as possible. The aim of these guidelines is to promote tourism activities that go beyond direct sightings of wildlife by focusing on wolf presence and wolf-related cultural heritage, creating economic opportunities for local communities in areas with wolves and consequently leading to increased tolerance towards this species. | I. Kavčič et al. for: LIFE WOLFALPS EU / Ljubljana, Biotechnical faculty |
| June 2022 | Transdisciplinary deficit in large carnivore conservation funding in Europe | Addressing the challenge of coexistence requires the revaluation of the approaches academia uses to foster carnivore conservation and human-large carnivore coexistence. The authors provide a brief overview of the three archetypical approaches of knowledge generation for large carnivore conservation in human dominated landscapes (disciplinary, interdisciplinary and emerging transdisciplinary approaches) and highlight the need for more explicit consideration of transdisciplinarity in large carnivore conservation funding. Current conservation funding programmes at the European level seem to favour sectorial and disciplinary approaches, resulting in low transdisciplinary substance in large carnivore conservation projects. | C.-R. Papp et al. in: Nature Conservation , Volume 49 |
| May 2022 | Changing patterns of conflict between humans, carnivores and crop-raiding prey as large carnivores recolonize human-dominated landscapes | Rebounding carnivore populations lead to increasing livestock depredation. However, they could also influence the behaviour of wild ungulates, which are themselves responsible for major crop damage. The authors used large datasets of increasing wolf occurrences, livestock depredation events, and crop damage events by wild boar in the Italian Apennines to model the determinants of livestock depredation and crop damage distribution in relation to wolf habitat suitability over 10 years. Results encompass: Firstly, livestock depredations were mainly related to insufficient prevention measures (e.g. lacking fencing) rather than landscape context. Secondly, crop damage decreased in areas of higher wolf habitat suitability and became more likely in areas of lower wolf habitat suitability. | M. Davoli et al. in: Biological Conservation, Volume 269 |
| March 2022 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News, Issue 24 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News is published by Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project “to facilitate the collaboration between specialists and to improve the exchange of information among carnivore damage prevention projects”. Contents:
|
R. Rigg (EIC) et al. within the LIFE EuroLargeCarnivores |
| March 2022 | Pathways towards coexistence with large carnivores in production systems | Coexistence between livestock grazing and carnivores in rangelands is a major challenge in terms of sustainable agriculture, animal welfare, species conservation and ecosystem function. Using a social-ecological transformations framework, we present two qualitative models that depict transformative change in rangelands grazing. Developed through participatory processes with stakeholders from South Africa and the United States of America, the models articulate drivers of change and the essential pathways to transition from routine lethal management of carnivores towards mutually beneficial coexistence. A key finding is the new concept of ‘Predator Smart Farming’, a holistic and conscientious approach to agriculture, which increases the resilience of landscapes, animals (domesticated and wild) and rural livelihoods. | L. Boronyak et al. in: Agriculture and Human Values, Volume 39 |
| 2022 | Large Carnivores in the Dinarides: Management, Monitoring, Threats and Conflicts - Background Report (EN) also available in ALB, HR, MK, SL or SR | The Dinaric Region in the Western Balkans is one of the most biologically diverse regions in Europe. It is also home to the three large carnivore species: bear, wolf and lynx (Balkan and Eurasian lynx), shared between EU and non-EU member states. Given the extensive ranges of these species, transnational coordination for their management is desirable to enable a long-term basis for their conservation. This background report assesses the situation regarding the current status of large carnivores, their management and monitoring, threats and conflicts in the Dinaric Region. It gives an overview of the situation in each country and compares this with previous evaluations. | K. Marsden et al. in: BfN Skripten, Volume 617 |
| 2022 | Perspectives on human-wildlife coexistence | The concept of ‘coexistence’ has emerged into the mainstream of conservation science as an increasingly significant framing for thinking about human-wildlife interactions. However, despite its potential to stimulate a systems-change in thinking about human-wildlife interactions, at present there is little agreement on what the concept means, or how to operationalise it. To this end, the Task Force considers what ‘human-wildlife coexistence’ means in the context of human-wildlife interactions and human-human interactions over how to manage these. This includes considering how it relates to human-wildlife conflict, and whether a single universal definition is needed or indeed appropriate. | IUCN SSC HWCTF |
| March 2022 | Mediating Human-Wolves Conflicts Through Dialogue, Joint Fact-Finding and Empowerment | Within a local and national context of escalating conflicts surrounding the management of immigrating wild wolves (Canis lupus) spreading from Germany into Denmark, the authors invited a group of citizens living in and nearby a Danish wolf territory to participate in an experiment called “The Wolf Dialogue Project”. The project, running for 2,5 years, offered a group of citizens the opportunity to formulate and communicate the problems and concerns they experienced, living in or nearby wolf territory. Participants were initially very polarised, and some were opposed to the existing wolf management regime as well as governmental agencies, but they began taking on a collective responsibility guided by the common interest of their community, across individual differences. In addition, the process left a significant mark on the new wolf management plan recommended to the government by the Danish Wildlife Council in 2021. | H.P. Hansen et al. in: Front. Environ. Sci |
| Febraury 2022 | Rewilding by Wolf Recolonisation, Consequences for Ungulate Populations and Game Hunting | The ongoing recolonisations of large carnivores in human-transformed environments entails the re-surfacing of conservation conflicts, e.g. due to predation on ungulate game species. Based on existing data on wolf prey selection, kill rates and territory size, the authors extrapolated the results from central Sweden and Poland to southern Sweden, where wolf recolonization has not yet occurred and conservation conflicts with hunters are expected. The authors show that the current system of five ungulate species in southern Sweden could potentially support a wolf density two to four times higher than in the current wolf distribution in central Sweden, which are mainly inhabited by roe deer and moos | M. Rodríguez-Recio et al. in: Biology, Volume 11 |
| Febraury 2022 | Humans rather than Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) shape ungulate browsing patterns in a temperate forest | The recolonization of human-dominated landscapes by large carnivores has been followed with considerable scientific interest; however, little is known about their interactive effect on ungulate foraging behavior. This study compared the risks imposed by humans and lynx on ungulate foraging behavior by examining the effects of browsing intensity (at two spatial scales), diet quality, and tree species selection. The results showed that (1) browsing intensity strongly decreased with increasing recreational activities, whereas it increased with lynx risk; (2) only in close proximity to human settlements tree browsing was higher in dense habitats and (3) a higher diet quality was obtained. (4) We found a stronger avoidance of the less preferred tree species in high-hunting intensity areas. In conclusion, our results indicate that the risk effects of human activities outweigh those of a natural large carnivore | S.T.S. van Beeck Calkoen et al. in: Ecosphere, Volume 13 |
| December 2021 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News, Issue 23 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News is published by Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project “to facilitate the collaboration between specialists and to improve the exchange of information among carnivore damage prevention projects”. Contents:
|
R. Rigg (EIC) et al. within the LIFE EuroLargeCarnivores |
| December 2021 | The illegal shooting and snaring of legally protected wolves in Poland | The recovery of wolf population across the continent coincides with an increasing incidence of illegal killing, which level remains unknown. The authors analysed the illegal killing of wolves in Poland, where the species is strictly protected since 1998. For this study data on illegally shot and snared wolves between 2002 to 2020 was collected, revealing their geographical extent and sex and age structure. The authors conclude that the present regulations concerning the prevention of illegal killing, pursuing and punishing the perpetrators of the illegal killing of wolves, require urgent improvements in order to effectively mitigate the problem. | S. Nowak et al. in: Biological Conservation, Volume 264 |
| December 2021 | Men and wolves: Anthropogenic causes are an important driver of wolf mortality in human-dominated landscapes in Italy | Over the last 40 years the gray wolf (Canis lupus) re-colonized its historical range in Italy increasing human-predator interactions. However, temporal and spatial trends in wolf mortality, including direct and indirect persecution, were never summarized. This study aims to fill this gap by focusing on the situation of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna regions, hosting a significant proportion of the Italian wolf population, by: (i) identifying the prevalent causes of wolf mortality, (ii) summarizing their temporal and spatial patterns and (iii) applying spatially-explicit Generalized Linear Models to predict wolf persecution. | C. Musto et al. in: Global Ecology and Conservation, Volume 32 |
| October 2021 | Commission notice: Guidance document on the strict protection of animal species of Community interest under the Habitats Directive | In October 2021, the Commission adopted a guidance document providing its understanding of the legal provisions under articles 12 and 16 of the Habitats Directive, reflecting the latest legal interpretations of the Court of Justice of the European Union and updating and replacing an earlier guidance from 2007. The process of updating this guidance included two broad consultations with Member States and stakeholders' organisations. Annex III of the guidance concerns the wolf and provides specific examples of application of the above-mentioned rules, recalling the existing Commission initiatives and funding opportunities to support coexistence with human activities. | European Commission, Directorate-General for Environment |
| October 2021 | Ecological correlates of large carnivore depredation on sheep in Europe | Sharing space with large carnivores on a human-dominated continent like Europe results in multiple conflictful interactions with human interests, of which depredation on livestock is the most widespread. The authors conducted an analysis of the impact by all four European large carnivores on sheep farming in 10 European countries, during the period 2010–2015. The study shows that a few large carnivores can produce high damage, when the contribution of environmental, social, and economic systems predisposes for it, whereas large populations can produce a limited impact when the same components of the system reduce the probability that depredations occur. | V. Gervasi et al. in: Global Ecology and Conservation, Volume 30 |
| October 2021 | Broadening the toolset for stakeholder engagement to explore consensus over wolf management | The authors report on a facilitation process for coexistence between people and large carnivores in an agricultural area of recent wolf recovery in central Italy where unsolved social tensions over wolf presence have radicalized opinions on either side of the wolf debate, resulting in a stalemate. Where previous mitigation policies based on top-down damage compensation have failed, they tested the potential for applying a participatory approach based on the theory of meta-consensus, using a decision support tool known as Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). | A. Marino et al. in: Journal of Environmental Management, Volume 296 |
| September 2021 | Welcoming Wolves? Governing the Return of Large Carnivores in Traditional Pastoral Landscapes | Reintegrating wolves in human-dominated landscapes is a major challenge, particularly in places where memories and experience of coexistence have been lost. Despite the observed expansion trends, little has been done to prepare communities for the return of these apex predators, or to understand what fosters and perpetuates coexistence. The authors present and apply a theoretical framework for resilient coexistence in Spain. The study found that both the perceptions of wolves and the capacity to coexist with them diverged across states, and that this was largely determined by a diversity of vulnerabilities that have not been recognized or addressed within current management regimes, such as economic precarity and weak legitimacy for governing institutions. | H.L. Pettersson et al. in: Front. Environ. Sci |
| September 2021 | Convivial Conservation from the Bottom Up: Human-Bear Cohabitation in the Rodopi Mountains of Bulgaria | This article describes a case of human-bear cohabitation in the Rodopi mountains (Yagodina-Trigrad area) of Bulgaria. The lack of protected areas in the region and the increasing number of brown bears (Ursus arctos) have resulted in both human-wildlife conflicts and the development of mechanisms and practices to facilitate cohabitation in the absence of formal rules to regulate coexistence of human and nonhuman species. However, these mechanisms and practices are currently undergoing transformations due to newfound protection of the species under national and EU legislation, respectively. The paper explores these dynamics through a case study of relatively successful cohabitation in the region. Our analysis identifies and outlines local adaptation and conservation mechanisms developed to live with bears as well as strategies to benefit from the bears' presence. | S. Tonchevaa, R. Fletcher, E. Turnhout in: Conservation & Society |
| September 2021 | Coexistence of large mammals and humans is possible in Europe’s anthropogenic landscapes | A critical question in the conservation of large mammals in the Anthropocene is to know the extent to which they can tolerate human disturbance. The authors analyze data on large mammal distribution to quantify the relative effect of anthropogenic variables on species' distribution as opposed to biophysical constraints. Results show that large mammal distribution is primarily constrained by biophysical constraints rather than anthropogenic variables. | B. Cretois et al. in: iScience, Volume 24 |
| July 2021 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News, Issue 22 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News is published by Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project “to facilitate the collaboration between specialists and to improve the exchange of information among carnivore damage prevention projects”. Contents:
|
R. Rigg (EIC) et al. within the LIFE EuroLargeCarnivores |
| June 2021 | The Return of Large Carnivores and Extensive Farming Systems: A Review of Stakeholders’ Perception at an EU Level | Conflicts between large carnivores and human activities undermine both the maintenance of livestock practices as well as the conservation of carnivores across Europe. A systematic search and subsequent analysis of 40 peer-reviewed studies collected from 1990 to September 2020 within Member States of the EU show that rural inhabitants and hunters exhibited the most negative attitude compared to urban inhabitants and conservationists, whose attitude was more positive. The authors show that direct experience with predators as a consequence of ongoing re-colonization may have affected the degree of acceptance of certain categories and that the long-term coexistence between humans and carnivores does not necessarily imply increased tolerance. | M. Franchini et al. in: Animals, Volume 11 |
| May 2021 | Where have all the young wolves gone? Traffic and cryptic mortality create a wolf population sink in Denmark and northernmost Germany | Large carnivores are currently recolonizing Europe following legal protection, but increased mortality in landscapes highly impacted by humans may limit further population expansion. We analyzed mortality and disappearance rates of 35 wolves (of which three emigrated, nine died and 14 disappeared by 1 January 2020) by genetic monitoring in the heavily cultivated and densely populated Jutland peninsula (Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein, Germany). The authors conclude that the region is a wolf population sink, primarily driven by cryptic mortality, most likely illegal killing. | P. Sunde et al. in: Conservation Letters, Volume 14 |
| May 2021 | Knowing bears: An ethnographic study of knowledge and agency in human–bear cohabitation | This article explores a case of human–wildlife cohabitation in the Rodopi mountains of Bulgaria, wherein people and brown bears (Ursus arctos) have adapted to living together in relative harmony. While conservation has conventionally been understood as something humans do on behalf of other species, a growing body of “more-than-human” research challenges this perspective as “anthropocentric” in arguing that nonhumans should be considered “co-constitutive actors” of the spaces they occupy. The study indeed demonstrates that both humans and bears seem to mold their behavior in relation to their sensing of the other’s behavior, it also demonstrates that knowledge of bears’ behavior is varyingly interpreted by groups of stakeholders holding diverse knowledge of bears that influence their attitudes and behavior towards the animals. | S. Toncheva & R. Fletcher in: Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space | 2021 | MOOC: Large Carnivores | The NGOs Natagora (Belgium), Ferus (France), Fapas (Spain) and FFW (Germany) have joined forces in a European Erasmus+ program to set up "the European People's University of Wild Animals project". It is in this context that the MOOC ("Massive Online Open Course") Large Carnivores was created. A MOOC is a type of online training, bringing together videos, text content and allowing the learner to work and validate their skills independently. with games, quizzes and exercises. It is free and now available in 4 languages: French/English/Spanish/German. | Natagora, Ferus, Fapas and FFW |
| April 2021 | Frontiers Research Topic: Conservation and Management of Large Carnivores - Local Insights for Global Challenges | This Research Topic will address five different subjects with innovative contributions on: (1) Novel approaches in terms of natural and social data in large carnivore conservation and management; (2) strengths and weaknesses of instruments and tools implemented; (3) human dimensions; (4) stakeholder engagement; (5) legal frameworks. The overall objective is to provide a set of impartial and science-focused approaches to explore tensions, contested areas and disagreements, provide fresh insight, and inform policy and stakeholder collaboration. | T. Hovardas et al. (eds.) in: Front. Ecol. Evol |
| April 2021 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News, Issue 21 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News is published by Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project “to facilitate the collaboration between specialists and to improve the exchange of information among carnivore damage prevention projects”. Contents:
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R. Rigg (EIC) et al. within the LIFE EuroLargeCarnivores |
| March 2021 | Why so negative? Exploring the socio-economic impacts of large carnivores from a European perspective | The authors developed a comprehensive categorization of the socio-economic impacts of large carnivore presence, combining impact assessment approaches from project planning with a conceptualization of biodiversity values (e.g. Nature's Contributions to People). They distinguish 19 impact categories grouped according to 1) economic impacts, 2) health and well-being impacts, and 3) social and cultural impacts. A review of the academic literature since 1990 identified 82 articles that assessed the socio-economic impacts of the four European large carnivore species, 44 of which focused on Europe. An analysis of these articles reveals a bias towards investigations of negative economic impacts, in most cases of wolves. To contrast the information provided by science with perspectives from conservation practice, a survey among expert practitioners was contucted to elicit relevance ratings for the impact categories. |
J. Rode et al. in: Biological Conservation 255 |
| February 2021 | Cantabrian Bears. Demographics, Coexistence and Conservation Challenges | The research projects that are presented in this book have been promoted and managed by the Brown Bear Foundation: The authors review the most up to date information on the demographics of the Cantabrian brown bear and debate and propose new formulas for new conservation challenges. They do this guided by a team of recognised researchers from different disciplines, keeping it clear that the tool capable of helping us to discern the future without falling into prejudices, is through employing the scientific method. | G. Palomero et al. (eds.) |
| January 2021 | “They Belong Here”: Understanding the Conditions of Human-wolf Coexistence in North-western Spain | Reintegrating wolves in human-dominated landscapes constitutes a significant conservation challenge. Using a coexistence lens, the authors studied human-wolf interactions in Sanabria-La Carballeda in Spain; the region has one of the highest densities of wolves in Europe. This article shows that disproportionate focus on and resource allocation to conflict within conservation programmes risks undermining existing convivial relationships with large carnivores. The findings of this novel approach to studying human-wildlife interactions elucidates how areas of functional coexistence have been neglected in policy, leaving them vulnerable to depopulation, low agricultural profitability, and the loss of biocultural diversity. | H. Pettersson et al. in: Conservation and Society |
| January 2021 | Large carnivore expansion in Europe is associated with human population density and land cover changes | Covering a 24 year period (1992–2015), the authors investigated whether land cover and human population density changes are related to the relative probability of occurrence of three European large carnivores: the grey wolf (Canis lupus), the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) and the brown bear (Ursus arctos). Recent land cover and human population changes appear to have altered the habitat suitability pattern for large carnivores in Europe, whereas protection level did not play a role. This suggests that large carnivores’ coexistence with humans in European landscapes is not limited by habitat availability, but other factors such as favourable human tolerance and policy. | M. Cimatti et al. in: Diversity and Distributions |
| January 2021 | Rewilding the world’s large carnivores without neglecting the human dimension | Rewilding is a growing conservation concept that seeks to enhance biodiversity and improve ecosystem functioning. When rewilding includes the reintroduction of large carnivores to landscapes from which they have been extirpated, assessing the societal impacts and acceptability is as, if not more, important than assessing the ecological feasibility. The authors caution that not including the human dimension when modelling the feasibility of a particular conservation action will produce flawed results by masking potentially low public acceptance and conflicts with particular stakeholders. Furthermore, repeated failure to work within a socio-ecological system (SES) framework threatens to alienate key stakeholders, particularly when NGOs propose trial reintroductions prior to any rigorous consideration of the human dimension. | M. Drouillyi and M.J. O’Riain in: Biodiversity and Conservation |
| December 2020 | 25 years of wolf presence in in Switzerland: an interim assessment (translation of the initial report from July 2020 in DE) | KORA's task is to collect reliable information on the large carnivores in Switzerland and to interpret this information objectively according to scientific criteria. The 25th anniversary of the return of the wolf to Switzerland is an opportunity for us to recapitulate the development of the Swiss wolf population, to collect facts and experiences and to compare them with the expectations and fears of the people. The wolf will continue to occupy the Swiss public and politics for a long time. This report should help to put the discussion on a sober and objective basis. | K. Vogt et al. for KORA Foundation |
| November 2020 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News, Issue 20 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News is published by Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project “to facilitate the collaboration between specialists and to improve the exchange of information among carnivore damage prevention projects”. Contents:
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R. Rigg (EIC) et al. within the LIFE EuroLargeCarnivores |
| November 2020 | Agent-based models predict patterns and identify constraints of large carnivore recolonizations, a case study of wolves in Scandinavia | This work demonstrates how spatially-explicit, agent-based models can assist to identify and predict how humans impact shape large carnivore recolonizations. Using detailed data obtained through long-term surveillance of wolf territories, the authors identified the mechanisms of recolonization and predicted the spatio-temporal patterns of expansion of the wolf in the Scandinavian Peninsula. They disentangled the observed mechanisms of expansion to develop WolVES (Wolf Virtual Expansion Simulator), an agent-based model software. Simulations identified that traffic infrastructures impacted only at configurations of insurmountable barriers unlikely to occur in Scandinavia, while low rates of territory termination had a major impact on the recolonization. | M.R. Recio et al. in: Biological Conservation 251 |
| October 2020 | Human-Large Carnivores Co-existence in Europe – A Comparative Stakeholder Network Analysis | This study is part of the EU LIFE project EuroLargeCarnivores, providing a scientific analysis of current stakeholder networks of the project partners (mainly WWF offices), a necessary foundation for “Improving human co-existence with large carnivores in Europe through communication and transboundary cooperation.” The authors conducted systematic participatory and transdisciplinary primary research in 14 European countries. | C.M. Grossmann et al. in: Front. Ecol. Evol. 20 |
| October 2020 | Seasonality, local resources and environmental factors influence patterns of brown bear damages: implications for management | The authors have analysed the spatio‐temporal patterns of brown bear Ursus arctos damages to apiaries, crops and livestock in the two small, isolated and endangered bear populations in northern Spain. The increase in the number of damages varied in parallel with the increase in bear numbers, which is probably a primary cause determining the occurrence on damages. Damages also varied among years, seasons and bear populations and seemed to mainly depend on the local availability of natural food items, weather conditions and the availability of apiaries and livestock. Fluctuating availability of food items may explain the frequency of conflicts, which is yet another call to apply preventive measures in carnivore damage to human property in seasons and years when natural food availability is lower than usual | A. Zarzo-Arias et al. in: Journal of Zoology 313 |
| 2020 | How to deal with bold wolves – Recommendations of the DBBW - (Translation of the original BfN-Skript 502 (2018)) | For a long time, there were no wolves in Germany. Since 2000, the species has been steadily spreading out from Lusatia and populating more areas. People in areas recently settled by wolves are only gradually learning how to live alongside this animal and are often uncertain how to interpret wolf behaviour. How dangerous are wolves for humans? What constitutes normal behaviour and what is considered unusual or bold behaviour? This report provides assessments of wolf behaviour as it relates to human safety and recommends managing wolves which display unwanted behaviour. In this report, conspicuous behaviour refers to wolf behaviour towards humans which is considered undesirable, and ranges from unusual to bold | I. Reinhardt et al. for Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) |
| 2020 | Encounters with Wolves: Dynamics and Futures | Wolves evoke emotions and create material as well as discursive effects. They stir up hopes and doubts and carry conflicts and questions with them. In order to understand these complex processes, as well as connected questions and challenges, the return of the wolves cannot solely be supervised by and organized through the lens of biological and ecological research. The expertise of social and cultural sciences also has to contribute and deliver their share in order to obtain a better understanding of these multispecies processes. The unique perspective, especially of European Ethnology and Sociocultural Anthropology, that highlights the logics of everyday life, can make the effects on versatile networks in which the returnees interact visible. | Marlis Heyer, Susanne Hose for Serbski institut |
| August 2020 | Conservation professionals' views on governing for coexistence with large carnivores | To gain insight into different viewpoints on governance regarding large carnivore conservation, the authors asked a global community of conservation professionals (n = 505) about their preferences for governance alternatives for carnivore conservation through an online survey. Respondents agreed that government biologists should make decisions while legislators and commissions received low agreement and less consensus. Findings also indicated a general rejection of turning decision processes completely over to the general public, to courts, or to politicians who are perceived as lacking both technical knowledge and local insights. The authors found evidence for consensus on best management processes using a combination of science, local knowledge and participatory decision-making. | M.L. Lute et al. in: Biological Conservation 248 |
| June 2020 | Large carnivores living alongside humans: Brown bears in human-modified landscapes | The authors review human-related factors that negatively affect brown bears inhabiting human-modified landscapes, aiming to improve human-bear coexistence. In human-modified landscapes, main threats to bear populations are human settlements, habituation and availability of anthropogenic food, density and traffic load of roads and railways, and recreational and industrial activities. Main effects of coexistence with humans for bears are: increased disturbance, human-bear conflicts and human-caused mortality; behavioural alterations; reduced fitness and genetic diversity; and physiological alterations. To promote bear-human coexistence in human-modified landscapes, the authors identified nine key elements. | A. Morales-González et al. in: Global Ecology and Conservation 22 |
| May 2020 | An ecological framework for contextualizing carnivore–livestock conflict | To better understand how ecological theory accords with interactions between wild predators and domestic prey, the authors developed a framework to describe ecological drivers of predation on livestock. They based this framework on foundational ecological theory and current research on interactions between predators and domestic prey. This framework was used to examine ecological mechanisms (e.g., density‐mediated effects, behaviorally mediated effects, and optimal foraging theory) through which specific management interventions operate. The authors further analyzed the ecological determinants of failure and success of management interventions in 3 case studies: snow leopards (Panthera uncia), wolves (Canis lupus), and cougars (Puma concolor) | C.E. Wilkinson et al. in: Conservation Biology 34 |
| March 2020 | Love Off, Fear On? Brown Bear Acceptance by Teenagers in European Countries with Differing Population Statuses | The acceptance of large carnivores is one of the key issues for their conservation. We analyzed the level acceptance of brown bears (Ursus arctos Linnaeus, 1758) amongst 10–18 year old school students in four European countries using anonymous questionnaires. Our aim was to characterize the drivers of species acceptance, described as a rural–urban cline, as well as fear levels and the respondents’ familiarity with bears. We found lower levels of acceptance of bears were related to fear of bears and that bear acceptance was not higher in the bear-inhabited countries, but urban inhabitants tended to better accept the species. | L. Balčiauskas et al. in: Sustainability 12 |
| March 2020 | Global opportunities and challenges for transboundary conservation | Transboundary conservation initiatives represent a unique opportunity to better protect species through coordinated management across national borders. Using metrics of governance, collaboration and human pressure, the authors provide an index of transboundary conservation feasibility to assess global opportunities and challenges for different nations. | N. Mason, M. Ward, J. Watson et al. in: Nature Ecology & Evolution |
| February 2020 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News, Issue 19 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News is published by Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project “to facilitate the collaboration between specialists and to improve the exchange of information among carnivore damage prevention projects”. Contents:
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R. Rigg (EIC) et al. within the LIFE EuroLargeCarnivores |
| February 2020 | EU Rural Development Policy and the management of conflictual species: The case of large carnivores | This paper focuses on the availability of measures within Rural Development Policies regarding human-carnivore coexistence. Highlights:
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K. Marsden, T. Hovardas in: Biological Conservation 243 |
| January 2020 | Relationships Between Livestock Damages and Large Carnivore Densities in Sweden | The authors use a 20-year data set on brown bear (Ursus arctos), Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) and wolf (Canis lupus) and their damages in Sweden to evaluate if temporal variation in carnivore densities has caused an equivalent variation in the number of damages to cattle, sheep and domestic dogs, if such relationships differed between the carnivore species and damage types, and if there were geographic scale dependencies in these relationships. They observed contradictory effects of large carnivore densities on damages, which included both positive and negative effects. Their results highlight that large carnivore damages can be highly context dependent, and that other factors than the size of local or regional carnivore populations may be more important damage determinants. | F. Dalerum, L.O.K. Selby and C.W.W. Pirk in: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 7 |
| 2019 | Expert opinion on the impact of returning wolves on agriculture and traditional grazing, leisure and recreation, hunting and forestry and biodiversity in the Eastern Alps region (available in DE) | As a result of the strict legal protection, wolves expanded into areas where it has been considered extinct for many decades, including Austria. The return represents a challenge for humans and their traditional land use, especially affecting the alpine pasture management. Principles for dealing with wolves exist, and sustainable solutions should address questions from wildlife biology, agricultural economics, leisure and recreation as well as biodiversity. | J. Hackländer, A. Daim, K. Bayer et al. (BOKU Vienna) |
| Fall 2019 | New Hope 140 Years after Extirpation of Brown Bears in Białowieża Forest, Poland–Belarus | Brown bears (Ursus arctos) were extirpated in the Białowieża Forest (nowadays straddling eastern Poland and western Belarus) at the end of the 19th century. The last resident bear was killed in 1879 —140 years ago.This spring 2019, a bear and its signs have been observed on repeated occasions on both sides of the border. | N. Selva, in: International Bear News 28 |
| September 2019 | Human-carnivore relations: A systematic review | We conducted a systematic review of 502 articles, published between 2000 and 2016, to characterize the research on human-carnivore relations according to (i) temporal and geographical distribution, (ii) biology, (iii) relations between carnivores and humans, (iv) social actors, (v) drivers of change, (vi) management, and (vii) applied methods. We performed a detrended correspondence analysis and Kruskal-Wallis tests to identify and describe thematic clusters used in human-carnivore relations research. Our results show that research is deeply biased so far, and four important knowledge gaps were detected. | J. Lozana et al. in: Biological Conservation 237 |
| August 2019 | Assessment of current knowledge on wolves in Europe with a view to their effective conservation and management. A partial review of the scientific literature on the wolf in Europe (available in all EU languages) | Based on a limited selection of 177 research papers, the authors brought together relevant information on wolves in Europe with a view of their effective conservation and management. While the methodology guaranteed a bias-free selection of scientific publications, it raised a number of concerns described in the report. Based on the review and the documents of the EC’s EU Large Carnivore Platform combined with the feedback from its membership, ELO made a number of recommendations in order to tackle some of the concerns of Europe’s rural inhabitants towards the increasing growth of wolf population in Europe’s rural areas. | J. Tack, A-S. Mulier, B. Van Hecke, J. Jarý (ELO) |
| August 2019 | Tools for co-existence: fladry corrals efficiently repel wild wolves (Canis lupus) from experimental baiting sites | Wolf attacks at livestock gathering areas often result in surplus killing, severe economic losses and emotional distress for the farmers, and financial claims from compensation funds. Fladry fence, one method for reducing attacks on gathered livestock used mainly in North America, remains largely untested in southern Europe. Testing the repelling efficiency of fladry corrals at six stations in central-northern Greece, the authors conclude that Fladry can be a cost-effective tool to exclude wolves from small-sized corrals, for weeks or months. | Y. Iliopoulos, C. Astaras, Y. Lazarou et al., in: Wildlife Research 46(6) |
| July 2019 | Large carnivore damage in Europe: Analysis of compensation and prevention programs | The mitigation of conflicts associated with large carnivore damage to livestock and agriculture is pivotal to their conservation. We evaluate current programs to compensate and prevent large carnivore damage in 27 European countries and the factors related to the economic costs of these programs. Overall, high compensation costs are associated with free-ranging livestock (68% of total costs) and with national economic wealth. Contrary to general belief, the return of large carnivores does not always translate into higher compensation costs. | C. Bautista et al. in: Biological Conservation 235 |
| July 2019 | All carnivores are not equal in the rural people's view. Should we develop conservation plans for functional guilds or individual species in the face of conflicts? | The authors tested differences in attitudes towards bears, wolves and lynx among the rural public in Albania and Macedonia and argue that, based on species specific differences in public attitudes, conservation initiatives and management plans for large carnivores should deal with wolves separately from bears and lynx, as lower public support for wolves might jeopardise the conservation of the two other large carnivores. | A. Trajce, G. Ivanov, E. Keci et al., in: Global Ecology and Conservation 19 |
| June 2019 | Brown bear attacks on humans: a worldwide perspective | With successful conservation efforts and increased expansion of human activities into wilderness, there is an increased potential for human-wildlife conflicts in the form of bear attacks on humans. The authors analysed worldwide incidents of bear attacks between 2000 and 2015 to identify their circumstances in North America, Europe and the East (Russia, Iran, Turkey). Most attacks occurred during leisure activities with female bears with cubs. Such findings contribute to the promotion of fact-oriented information among the wider public. | G. Bombieri, J. Naves, V. Penteriani et al., in: Scientific Reports 9 |
| Summer 2019 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News, Issue 18 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News is published by Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project “to facilitate the collaboration between specialists and to improve the exchange of information among carnivore damage prevention projects”. Contents:
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S. Ribeiro for Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project |
| May 2019 | Unravelling the Scientific Debate on How to Address Wolf-Dog Hybridization in Europe | The article addresses the management of wolf x dogs hybrids by contextualizing different views on hybridization issues. Following expert interviews, common positions on management recommendations are presented. | V. Donfrancesco et al., in: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (online) |
| April 2019 | What form of human-wildlife coexistence is mandated by legislation? A comparative analysis of international and national instruments | Biodiversity conservation being an international concern, activities aimed at it are also a potential source of conflict between humans and wildlife. Legislation represents a major basis to determine which form the human-wildlife relationship should take. In the paper, the implicit and explicit moral basis of national and international legislation is explored. Findings include a general willingness to improve the status of endangered species/ecosystems and to compromise between society's and wildlife interests. | B. Cretois et al., in: Biodiversity and Conservation (online) |
| March 2019 | Moving through the matrix: Promoting permeability for large carnivores in a human-dominated landscape | This work sought to determine the development characteristics that contribute to movement potential in an exurban landscape for a large carnivore, the puma. The authors suggest that maintaining permeability in developing landscapes is likely contingent on preventing densification and parcel subdivision in exurban areas. The authors discuss how their findings and approach can be used by conservation planners to promote landscape permeability in already partially developed landscapes. | J. Smith, T. Duane, C. Wilmers in: Landscape and Urban Planning 183 |
| March 2019 | Management of bold wolves | The policy support statement by the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe on the management of bold wolves, outlining prevention, documentation, intervention and information needs for successful management. The statement also identifies research priorities for the future. | Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe (LCIE) |
| March 2019 | Wolf-livestock conflict in Tzoumerka National Park and comparisons with other protected areas of Greece | Via interviews, the technical report investigates on the profile of farmers in Tzoumerka National Park, their livestock losses caused by wolves, damage prevention methods employed and an evaluation of livestock guarding dogs in particular. Compared with other case studies within Greece, the percentage of farmers experiencing livestock losses was highest, while these represented a medium mean % of annual losses. While adoption and intensity of livestock guarding dogs was at medium level, satisfaction was lowest. | M. Petridou, Y. Iliopoulos & V. Kati |
| March 2019 | The role of fire on wolf distribution and breeding-site selection: Insights from a generalist carnivore occurring in a fire-prone landscape | Large carnivores are expected to experience strong effects as recently burned areas influence prey availability and suitable conditions for refuge and breeding. The results demonstrated wolves’ remarkable resilience to fire, persisting and breeding in a human-dominated landscape under intensive fire regimes. | S. Lino et al., in: Landscape and Urban Planning 183 |
| February 2019 | Wolf diet and livestock selection in central Greece | As analysis of wolf scats collected in between January 2010 and 2012 shows, domestic ungulates (goats, sheep, cattle, pig carrions) represent an important part of wolf diet in Greece. The authors observe a low availability of wild ungulates as prey as well as a high accessibility of domestic livestock, concluding that surveillance of goats and cattle should be intensified. | M. Petridou, D. Xoulatos, Y. Lazarou et al., in: Mammalia 2019 |
| December 2018 | Patterns of wild carnivore attacks on humans in urban areas | Attacks by wild carnivores on humans represent an increasing problem in urban areas across North America and their frequency is expected to rise following urban expansion towards carnivore habitats. Here, we analyzed records of carnivore attacks on humans in urban areas of the U.S. and Canada between 1980 and 2016 to analyze the general patterns of the attacks, as well as describe the landscape structure and, for those attacks occurring at night, the light conditions at the site of the attacks. We found that several behavioral and landscape-related factors were recurrent elements in the attacks recorded. | G. Bombieri, M.D.M. Delgado, L. Russo et al., in: Scientific reports 8(1) |
| September 2018 | Guide: Learning to live with wolves | Successful conservation projects are enabling large mammals in Europe to recover and re-establish their populations. One of them is the wolf, whose expanding distribution presents a challenge for people living in such areas. The guide gives basic information on wolf ecology such as appearance and behavior and takes different perspectives of wolf-human interaction such as safety issues, agriculture and husbandry activities, hunting, forestry and tourism to inform about how coexistence might be achieved. | P. Sürth, C. Miller and J. Arnold for WWF Germany |
| July 2018 | Content Analysis of Media Reports on Predator Attacks on Humans: Toward an Understanding of Human Risk Perception and Predator Acceptance | Public tolerance toward predators is fundamental in their conservation and is highly driven by people's perception of the risk they may pose. Although predator attacks on humans are rare, they create lasting media attention, and the way the media covers them might affect people's risk perception. Understanding how mass media presents attacks and how this can affect perception will provide insights into potential strategies to improve coexistence with these species. We collected media reports of predator attacks on humans and examined their content. | G. Bombieri, V. Nanni, M.D.M. Delgado et al., in: BioScience 68(8) |
| July 2018 | 2018-2023 French National Action Plan on the wolf and stock-rearing activities | The plan builds up on the lessons learnt from 2013-2017 and presents 7 management approaches on the topic of flock protection, reinforcing the departmental steering of the national wolf plan, damage compensation, wolf monitoring, interventions, communication and information as well as research. | Ministry for an Ecological and Inclusive Transition; Ministry of Agriculture and Food |
| July 2018 (Update of Annexes) | Concept framework wolf Switzerland,
also available in French and Italian |
In 2018, the the annexes clarifying conditions on damage compensation and lethal measures in relation to reasonable protection measures were updated as well as an overview of areas with wolf presence from 2017 and earlier years. In 2016, the concept framework wolf had been adapted based on the revised Swiss hunting regulation from July 2015, considering the jurisdiction and procedure for shooting individual wolves as well as young wolves in packs, which however do not display a typical shy behavior. It included a scheme dealing with the assessment of problematic behavior of young wolves. | Federal Office for the Environment (BAFU) |
| June 2018 | May media reports and social media switch public perception of large carnivores? | Human acceptance over the presence of predators is crucial for their conservation and is highly ruled by people’s perception of the risk they can involve. Even if predator attacks on humans are rare, they arouse a disproportionate media attention. The way the media covers predator attacks and the resonance that these reports have on the ample network of the social media, might affect the perception of risk. Thus, before providing insights into potential strategies to improve the human coexistence with these species, it is necessary to understand how media presents attacks and how public perception might change accordingly. | V. Nanni, G. Bombieri, M.D.M. Delgado et al., in: XI Congresso Italiano di Teriologia |
| May 2018 | Large Carnivores Report 2018, Forestry and Wildlife Department - Autonomous Province of Trento | Starting from 2007, The APT Forestry and Wildlife Department has drawn up a document on yearly basis concerning the situation of the brown bear, wolf and lynx populations in Trentino and the related management issues. The main targets are two: on one hand the document aims at providing correct, updated and detailed information about the status of the large carnivores populations present in Trentino and in the nearby regions, on the other hand, it aims at recording and making available a systematic collection of data, as complete as possible, to be periodically used by specialists and insiders. | C. Groff et al. (eds.) |
| Spring 2018 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News, Issue 17 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News is published by Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project “to facilitate the collaboration between specialists and to improve the exchange of information among carnivore damage prevention projects”. Contents:
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S. Ribeiro for Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project |
| April 2018 | Can only poorer European countries afford large carnivores? | One of the classic approaches in environmental economics is the environmental Kuznets curve, which predicts that when a national economy grows from low to medium levels, threats to biodiversity conservation increase, but they decrease when the economy moves from medium to high. The authors evaluated this approach by examining how population densities of the brown bear (Ursus arctos), gray wolf (Canis lupus), and Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) were related to the national economy in 24 European countries. | I. Kojola et al. |
| January 2018 | Political populations of large carnivores: Large-Carnivore Populations | Reporting of population data and associated policies are prone to political influence. Case studies from around the world revealed patterns of governments justifying politically preferred policies by exaggerating, without empirical justification, the size or resilience of carnivore populations. Such a process creates what the authors term, ‘political populations’ – those with attributes constructed to serve political interests. | C. T. Darimont et al., in: Conservation Biology 2018. |
| January 2018 | Conservation professionals agree on challenges to coexisting with large carnivores but not on solutions | To characterize current viewpoints about terrestrial large carnivore conservation, the authors conducted an online survey assessing a wide range of viewpoints about large carnivore conservation among international professionals. They explored how variation in viewpoints was related to expertise, background, and broader institutional contexts in which one lives and works. Results point to considerable diversity, perhaps driven by local context, concerning how to proceed with large carnivore conservation in the increasingly human-influenced landscapes of the Anthropocene. This study underlines that challenges to adopting and implementing long-lasting carnivore conservation strategies may well occur as much within the conservation community as outside it. | M. L. Lute et al., in: Biological Conservation 2018: 218: 223-232. |
| 2018 | Large Carnivores Report 2017, Autonomous Province of Trento’s Forestry and Wildlife Department | The ‘Large Carnivores Report’ is issued on a yearly basis and offers detailed information on the status of brown bear, wolf and lynx populations present in Trentino as well as information on their management. | C. Groff et al. (editors) |
| December 2017 | Deutschlands Wilde Wölfe [Germany's wild wolves] | The return of the wolves to Germany in 2007 is not welcomed by everyone. In the future, more and more people will have to live together with the wolf in the same area. In close cooperation with wolf researchers, the zoologist and photographer Axel Gomille observed wolves for over eight years and documented with outstanding photographs in a book the return, distribution, resulting conflicts, and conservation of wild wolves in Germany. [Illustrated book, currently only available in German] | A. Gomille, Frederking & Thaler |
| Autumn 2017 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News, Issue 16 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News is published by Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project “to facilitate the collaboration between specialists and to improve the exchange of information among carnivore damage prevention projects”. Contents:
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S. Ribeiro for Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project |
| September 2017 | Humans and climate change drove the Holocene decline of the brown bear |
The interaction of the two factors thought to have influenced prehistoric extinctions complicates the identification of pathways these extinction may have taken. The paper analyses how increasing winter temperatures affected the spatial distribution of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) population across Europe dating back 12,000 years, both directly by reducing the species' reproductivity as well as by facilitating human land use. | J. Albrecht et al., in: Scientific Reports 7: 10399. |
| Summer 2017 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News, Issue 15 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News is published by Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project “to facilitate the collaboration between specialists and to improve the exchange of information among carnivore damage prevention projects”. Contents:
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S. Ribeiro for Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project |
| May 2017 | Limited evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to reduce livestock predation by large carnivores | Successful coexistence between large carnivores and humans is conditional upon effective mitigation of the impact of these species on humans, such as through livestock depredation. It is therefore essential for conservation practitioners, carnivore managing authorities, or livestock owners to know the effectiveness of interventions intended to reduce livestock predation by large carnivores. The authors urge managers and stakeholders to move towards an evidence-based large carnivore management practice and researchers to conduct studies of intervention effectiveness with a randomized case-control design combined with systematic reviewing to evaluate the evidence. | A. Eklund et al., in: Scientific Reports 7 |
| Spring 2017 | The SusiAita project – looking at wolves from both sides of the fence (Activity report) | The project SusiAita (WolfFence) in Finland aimed at informing about the prevention of livestock damages from 2014-2017. The activity report presents the information dissemination and exchange process at the project's local events. Protection methods suitable for different animal production contexts of the farmers are described. The project is also described in brief as case study regarding provision of advice. | A. Rinne (Finnish Wildlife Agency) |
| Spring 2017 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News, Issue 14 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News is published by Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project “to facilitate the collaboration between specialists and to improve the exchange of information among carnivore damage prevention projects”. Contents:
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S. Ribeiro for Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project |
| February 2017 | 'O Neighbour, Where Art Thou?' Spatial and social dynamics in wolverine and lynx, from individual space use to population distribution | Conserving predators on an increasingly crowded planet brings very difficult challenges. The authors argue that community ecology theory can help conserve these species in human-dominated landscapes. Letting humans and predators share the same landscapes is similar to maintaining a community of predatory species, one of which is humans. | M. Aronsson, in: Sveriges lantbruksuniv., Acta Universitatis agriculturae Sueciae 2017:24 |
| January 2017 | Global exposure of carnivores to roads | Land-use change is a major threat to biodiversity globally. Roads cause direct mortality and limitation of individual movements, which may isolate populations and affect their viability in the long term. Here the authors provide the first comprehensive global assessment of the exposure of terrestrial mammalian carnivores to roads using an integrated modelling framework. The results suggest the need to reassess the status and threats of those species that have not been previously recognized as strongly affected by roads. The used framework can be applied at different spatial scales, to assess the effects of the development of the road network and inform prioritization schemes for road building, and to identify areas for conservation, and species requiring particular mitigation and restoration measures. | A. Ceia-Hasse et al., in: Global Ecology and Biogeography 2017: 26(5): 592-600. |
| Winter 2016 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News, Issue 13 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News is published by Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project “to facilitate the collaboration between specialists and to improve the exchange of information among carnivore damage prevention projects”. Contents:
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S. Ribeiro for Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project |
| October 2016 |
An interdisciplinary review of current and future approaches to improving human-predator relations | Through interdisciplinary collaboration among authors trained in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, current approaches have been reviewed to mitigating adverse human–predator encounters and a vision for future approaches to understanding and mitigating such encounters has been devised. | S. Pooley et al., in: Conservation Biology 2016: 31(3) |
| October 2016 | Interpreting ‘favourable conservation status’ for large carnivores in Europe: how many are needed and how many are wanted? | The EU Habitats Directive contains legal obligations for the 28 EU member states in order to safeguard a ‘favourable conservation status’ (FCS) for selected species and habitat types. The crucial FCS concept itself, however, remains subject to considerable confusion regarding its proper interpretation and operationalization, impairing the Directive’s effective implementation. Diminishing this confusion is the purpose of this review. It focuses specifically on large carnivores—wolf (Canis lupus), brown bear (Ursus arctos), Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) and wolverine (Gulo gulo). | A. Trouwborst, L. Boitani & J.D.C. Linnell, in: Biodiversity and Conservation 2017:26(1), 37-61. |
| August 2016 |
Coexistence with Large Carnivores Informed by Community Ecology | Conserving predators on an increasingly crowded planet brings very difficult challenges. The authors argue that community ecology theory can help conserve these species in human-dominated landscapes. Letting humans and predators share the same landscapes is similar to maintaining a community of predatory species, one of which is humans. | G. Chapron & J. V. López-Bao, in: Trends in Ecology & Evolution 31(8) |
| July 2016 | Assessing large-scale wildlife responses to human infrastructure development | Habitat loss and deterioration represent the main threats to wildlife species, and are closely linked to the expansion of roads and human settlements. Unfortunately, large-scale effects of these structures remain generally overlooked. The authors analyzed the European transportation infrastructure network and found that 50% of the continent is within 1.5 km of transportation infrastructure. A method for assessing the impacts from infrastructure on wildlife is presented here. | A. Torres, J. A. G. Jaeger & J. C. Alonso, in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113(30): 8472–8477. |
| July 2016 | Co-Adaptation Is Key to Coexisting with Large Carnivores | There is a pressing need to integrate large carnivore species into multi-use landscapes outside protected areas. However, an unclear understanding of coexistence hinders the realization of this goal. Here, the authors provide a comprehensive conceptualization of coexistence in which mutual adaptations by both large carnivores and humans have a central role. | N. H. Carter & J.D.C. Linnell, in: Trends in Ecology & Evolution 31(8) |
| June 2016 | Instructions for wolf territory cooperation groups (also available in Finnish and Swedish) | Wolf territory cooperation groups have been established as an approach of the Finnish wolf management to give local stakeholders more opportunities to participate in decision-making. The instructions briefly present the purpose of the groupings and suggest on meeting practices, activities and communications. The groups are also presented as a case study by the EU Large Carnivore Platform here. | A. Rinne & M. Lyly (The Finnish Wildlife Agency) |
| Spring 2016 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News, Issue 12 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News is published by Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project “to facilitate the collaboration between specialists and to improve the exchange of information among carnivore damage prevention projects”. Contents:
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S. Ribeiro for Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project |
| February 2016 | Human behaviour can trigger large carnivore attacks in developed countries | The media and scientific literature are increasingly reporting an escalation of large carnivore attacks on humans in North America and Europe. Although large carnivore populations are generally increasing in developed countries, increased numbers are not solely responsible for the observed rise in the number of attacks by large carnivores. Here we show that an increasing number of people are involved in outdoor activities and, when doing so, some people engage in risk-enhancing behaviour that can increase the probability of a risky encounter and a potential attack. This study provides unique insight into the causes, and as a result the prevention, of large carnivore attacks on people. | V. Penteriani et al., in: Scientific Reports 6 |
| January 2016 | Non-consumptive use of brown bears in tourism: guidelines for responsible practices | The non-consumptive use of wildlife, and bears in particular has been practiced for a couple of decades already inNorthAmerica butis relatively new in southern Europe, where several healthy bear populations still remain. These guidelines were prepared to introduce the concept of the non-consumptive use of bears in tourism in the northern Dinarics and to set specific recommendations for the development of different non-consumptive products. | A. Karamanlidis et al., for: LIFE DINALP BEAR |
| January 2016 | Social factors mediating human–carnivore coexistence: Understanding thematic strands influencing coexistence in Central Romania | Facilitating human–carnivore coexistence depends on the biophysical environment but also on social factors. Focusing on Central Romania, the authors conducted 71 semi-structured interviews to explore human–bear (Ursus arctos) coexistence. | I. Dorresteijn et al., in: Ambio, A Journal for the Human Environment |
| January 2016 | Concept framework lynx Switzerland,
also available in French and Italian |
The concept framework lynx recently has been adapted based on the revised Swiss hunting regulation from 2012. It redefines regulating measures for lynx population if wildlife stock particularly of deer and chamois is low due to lynx presence. The adapted concept for the lynx subdivides Switzerland into 16 wildlife districts, in which the Swiss confederation and cantons evaluate, in which way lynx population stock, wild game as well as forest regeneration affect one another. The concept further sets the framework for possible shooting requests undertaken by the cantons. The new regulation came into force in January 19, 2016. | Federal Office for the Environment (BAFU) |
| January 2016 | Border controls: Refugee fences fragment wildlife | Letter to Nature magazine describing how the border fences in parts of Europe erected in response to the current massive influx of refugees may harm wildlife. The fences can kill animals by entangling them in razor wire and will jeopardize the hard-won connectivity of species populations. It is also suggested that the fences could be in violation of commitments under international conservation agreements, such as the European Commission’s Habitats Directive. | J.D.C. Linnell, in: Nature 529 |
| Winter 2015 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News, Issue 11 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News is published by Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project “to facilitate the collaboration between specialists and to improve the exchange of information among carnivore damage prevention projects”. Contents:
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S. Ribeiro for Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project |
| September 2015 | Horses and Wolves: A Contribution to Coexistence | Since the year 2000, people and wolves have again been sharing the same habitat in Germany. In Lower Saxony, the "Land of the Horse", horse keepers in particular are finding themselves in a new situation. While there are clear-cut regulations for the protection of sheep, information on the interaction between horses and wolves has not been available. The manual both summarizes the current state of research and offers horse keepers practical recommendations on how to deal with the presence of wolves in their specific region. | Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU) e.V. |
| August 2015 | Lithuanian wolf management plan | The Lituanian Wolf Management Plan aims to ensure a favorable protection status of wolf population and ensuring a peaceful coexistence between wolves and humans. | Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania |
| July 2015 | Beyond compensation: Integrating local communities’ livelihood choices in large carnivore conservation. | Conserving biodiversity in human-dominated regions of the world is complex, particularly in case of large carnivores where perceived conflicts exist with economic development, expanding human populations and livelihoods. Using a systematic ‘bottom-up’ consultative framework, based on a choice modelling approach that accounts for heterogeneity in the population, the authors explore alternative strategies that meet conservation and human development goals. | A. Harihar et al., in: Global Environmental Change 33 |
| May 2015 | Individual and collective responses to large carnivore management: the roles trust, representation, knowledge spheres, communication and leadership. | Overseeing the continued recovery, dispersal and management of large carnivore populations while simultaneously considering human viability and welfare requires delicately balancing local concerns for rural communities’ livelihood prospects and property vulnerability with international concerns for saving threatened species. In this article, the authors propose an integrated analytical perspective to elucidate how competing interests and power relationships influence the governance and management of contested wildlife resources. | A. Sjölander-Lindqvist et al., in: Wildlife Biology, 21(3) |
| May 2015 | Law and conservation conflicts | A book chapter reviewing some roles that law and legal research play with respect to conflicts over the conservation of biodiversity. The paper first briefly introduces law and legal research and then discusses the respective roles of law and legal research with regard to conservation conflicts. Legal conflicts involving large carnivores are used as an example in the text. | A. Trouwborst, in: Conflicts in Conservation: Navigating towards Solutions |
| May 2015 | Sheep farming and large carnivores: What are the factors influencing claimed losses? | These findings could help develop new mitigation strategies as alternatives to predator removal where large carnivore conservation is a concern. | G. Mabille et al., in: Ecosphere 6(5) |
| April 2015 | Adapting the traditional use of livestock guarding dogs to a modern context | A richly illustrated document has been published on the cultural heritage value of livestock guarding dogs, and their significance for modern conservation challenges. This communication project has pooled the current knowledge of the use of at a large number of breeds and southern and eastern Europe, as well as in Asia. | J.D.C. Linnell & N. Lescureux, for DG Environment |
| March 2015 | The missing lynx — understanding hunters' opposition to large carnivores | Local opposition to large carnivores is a frequent source of conflict and a major obstacle for large carnivore conservation worldwide. The aim of this study is to understand hunters' reasons for opposing large carnivores, paying particular attention to the social dimension of the conflict. The authors argue that future large carnivore management should focus more on shaping the quality of the interaction between the managers, advocates and opponents of large carnivores in order to overcome group-conflict and reactance processes. | A. Lüchtrath & U. Schraml, in: Wildlife Biology 21(2) |
| March 2015 | Toothless wildlife protection laws | Granting legal protection to an endangered species has long been considered a major milestone for its conservation and recovery. A multitude of examples such as wolves in the contiguous USA (Boitani 2003) or many large carnivore populations in Europe (Chapron et al. 2014) have revealed how instrumental wildlife protection laws can be for species recovery. However, legal obligations to conserve endangered species may be useless if the rule of law is not properly enforced. | J. V. López-Bao et al., in: Biodiversity and Conservation 24(8) |
| March 2015 | Public attitudes toward wolves in Italian and Slovenian Alps | In this study of public attitudes toward wolves and wolf conservation 3,675 respondents from seven previously identified key areas (core areas) were surveyed for wolf conservation across Italian and Slovenian Alps. In conclusion, the results of this study suggests that although overall supportive to wolf conservation, the residents of the key areas in the Alps need to be continuously reached through well planned information campaigns. | A.M. Skrbinšek et al., in: Technical report, Project LIFE 12 NAT/IT/00080 WOLFALPS |
| March 2015 | Paying for an Endangered Predator Leads to Population Recovery | This study shows that paying Sami reindeer herders for wolverine reproductions has been instrumental in the recovery of wolverines in Sweden. The programme’s success, even in a system where livestock is the main prey for the predator, reveals an exceptional potential for future implementations in large carnivore conservation. | J. Persson, G.R. Rauset & G. Chapron, in: Conservation Letters 8(5) |
| March 2015 | Defining, preventing, and reacting to problem bear behaviour in Europe | The European Commission has published this documents about conflict resolutions with the target species bear. The report brings together experts' knowledge from a range of European countries trying to standardize definitions and recommendations for appropriate responses to problematic bear behaviour. | A.M. Skrbinšek & M. Krofel, for DG Environment |
| February 2015 | Global large carnivore conservation and international law | For 31 species in the order Carnivora, this study (i) documents to what extent existing international legal instruments contribute to large carnivore conservation, and (ii) identifies ways of optimizing their contribution in this regard. From this dual perspective, it reviews all global wildlife conservation treaties and selected regional instruments, using standard international law research methodology. | A. Trouwborst, in: Biodiversity and Conservation |
| February 2015 | Key actions for Large Carnivore populations in Europe | Technical report covering the most urgent actions necessary at the population level for four species of large carnivore protected under the EU’s Habitats Directive. Produced under contract for the European Commission. | L. Boitani et al., for DG Environment |
| 2015 | Community-based approaches to large carnivore conservation – Examples from outside Europe | This literature review discusses the effectiveness of involving local communities in conservation efforts and the various incentives offered to communities to gain their support for conservation activities. Its purpose is to highlight possible methods that could be applicable to conservation of large carnivores in Europe. | H. Palejowski, the European Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FACE) |
| 2015 | Standards for the monitoring of the Central European wolf population in Germany and Poland | Germany and Poland share a joint wolf population - the Central European population. For a joint assessment of the status of transboundary populations, the underlying data must be comparable. In 2012, the members of the Polish-German wolf working group decided to commission the development of joint monitoring standards as a prerequisite to allow a robust population-level evaluation of population size, area of occurrence and their respective trends. | I. Reinhardt et al., for Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) |
| 2015 | Monitoring the status of Carpathian lynx in Switzerland and Slovakia | This report summarises the findings of the project “Living with Carpathian Spirits”, which arose as a pilot study to adapt systematic monitoring from Switzerland to conditions in the Slovak Carpathians. It underlines the importance of implementing a well-organized lynx health surveillance programme in Slovakia, the overall goal of which is to carry out adaptive management based on scientific data. | R. Rigg & J. Kubala, for Slovak Wildlife Society |
| December 2014 | Recovery of large carnivores in Europe’s modern human-dominated landscapes | Scientific paper summaring data on the distribution and status of the four large carnivore species in Europe and showing that many European populations are in the process of recovering from historic lows in the middle of the twentieth century. | G. Chapron et al., in: Science 346 |
| December 2014 | Exploring traditional husbandry methods to reduce wolf predation on free-ranging cattle in Portugal and Spain | The report describes the process and outcomes of a project about how conflict can be reduced on the Iberian Peninsula. Other products of this project include a manual of good practices about how to minimize conflicts between wolves and livestock in Spanish and Portuguese, and another information brochure for the public (only available in Portuguese at the moment). | DG Environment |
| December 2014 | Engaging stakeholders in wildlife monitoring: A pilot study of wolves in Slovakia using non-invasive genetic sampling | The Pilot study brings together local knowledge and modern technology to estimate the local wolf population's size through broad involvement of stakeholders. | R. Rigg, T. Skrbinšek & J.D.C. Linnell, for DG Environment |
| October 2014 | Conservation’s blind spot: The case for conflict transformation in wildlife conservation | Conservation conflicts are often exacerbated by complex underlying social conflicts. Current limitations in practice impede conservation success in conflict settings. Conservation conflict transformation (CCT) offers a way to overcome obstacles. Two analytical models illustrate how CCT can transform complex social conflict. Initial evidence suggests positive impacts and efficacy of CCT approach. | F. Madden & B. McQuinn |
| August 2014 | Where the wild things are: Big beasts return to Europe | A New scientist feature article covers European large carnivores. It covers the return of large carnivores to Europe, presents the concerns of some stakeholders and focues on the recently created EU stakeholder platform | H. Nicholls, in: New Scientist magazine (IUCN) |
| Spring 2014 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News, Issue 10 | Carnivore Damage Prevention News is published by Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project “to facilitate the collaboration between specialists and to improve the exchange of information among carnivore damage prevention projects”. Contents:
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S. Ribeiro (EIC) for Grupo Lobo in the MedWolf Project |
| März 2013 | Large Carnivore Conservation and Management in Europe: The contribution of EC co-funded LIFE project | The contribution of the LIFE programme to the conservation of large carnivores (brown bear, wolf and Eurasian lynx) in Europe was reviewed for the period 1992-2010, as part of the service contract “Support to the European Commission's policy on large carnivores under the Habitats Directive” issued to the Istituto di Ecologia Applicata. | V. Salvatori et al., for DG Environment |
| February 2013 | Understanding and managing conservation conflicts | Effective conflict management and long-term conservation benefit will be enhanced by better integration of the underpinning social context with the material impacts and evaluation of the efficacy of alternative conflict management approaches. | S. Redpath et al., in: Trends in Ecology & Evolution 28(2) |
| 2013 | LIFE and human coexistence with large carnivores | Since the establishment in 1992 of LIFE, the EU funding programme for the Environment, EU support for endangered large carnivore species and their habitats has focused on targeted practical conservation, restoration and management actions in the protected Natura 2000 network sites throughout the Union. This publication illustrates, the LIFE programme has played a valuable role in demonstrating ways of managing conflicts in the area of coexistence. Involving stakeholders such as stockbreeders and the hunting community has been important in reconciling conservation and socio-economic goals. Some projects have been more successful than others, but valuable lessons can be learned from them all. | J. P. Silva et al., for DG Environment |
| November 2011 | When the lads go hunting: The 'Hammertown mechanism' and the conflict over wolves in Norway | Based on an ethnographic study of the conflicts over wolf protection, this paper demonstrates that ‘the Hammertown mechanism’ is of a more general nature than often implied in the discussion of Willis’ work. | O. Krange (NINA) & K. Skogen (NINA), in: Ethnography 12 |
| October 2011 | Stakeholder analysis was based on the results of the former action to outline potential points of consensus among stakeholders on the issue of large carnivore conservation. Opinion polls were utilized to determine attitudes of stakeholders towards coexistence with large carnivores. | The leading beneficiary of the LIFE EX-TRA (Experience-Transfer) Project “Improving the conditions for large carnivore conservation - a transfer of best practices” was Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park, Italy. The overall objective of the project was to transfer and exchange best practice between different South-East European countries (Romania, Bulgaria and Greece) and three protected areas in Italy. | LIFE EX-TRA |
| October 2011 | Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf? Young People's Responses to the Conflicts Over Large Carnivores in Eastern Norway | Aside from the growth of the pro-carnivore middle-class segments, the most significant effect of modernization appeared to be the removal of many young people from the subject matter of the conflict. A “subculturalization” of the working-class hunting culture also could be discerned, however. | K. Skogen (NINA) and the University of Oslo, in: Rural Sociology 66(2) |
| 2011 | The Action Plan for the Conservation of the Marsican Brown Bear (PATOM) | PATOM is an initiative of the Italian Ministry for the Environment and the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research – ISPRA focused on the Apennine region in Italy, especially the Abruzzo National Park. It includes a Memorandum of Understanding involving a large number of interest groups and organisations. Included in the Plan are a series of concrete actions including a section addressing conflict resolution. Measures focus on hunting management, reducing conflict with livestock owners, disease management, problem bear management, habitat and disturbance management. In addition, a number of communication actions are established such as a website and dissemination and education activities. | R. Grimaldi et al., in: Quaderni di Conservazione della Natura 37 |
| January 2010 | Changes in attitudes toward wolves in Croatia | Against a background of an evolving wolf policy process the authors carried out personal structured interviews with residents of three regions within Croatian wolf range in 1999 and repeated the study, using the same methodology in 2003. The authors documented a change in public support for wolf conservation and support for control of wolves. Using human dimensions research as an evaluative tool can help large carnivore managers be more adaptive and thus effective in their management solutions. | A. Majíc & A.J. Bath, in: Biological Conservation 143(1) |
For more key literature on human-wildlife conflict topics and species, amongst others bears, please see the link to the resource centre of the IUCN Human-Wildlife Conflict Task Force.