Fear of large carnivores, an issue of increasing importance in many member states and many Platform members deal with enquiries about the potential danger of large carnivores to people. The Platform has therefore decided to gather more information on the topic and to collaborate with other researchers examining the issue.

At the plenary meeting, the Platform members discussed the issues of fear, danger and of “bold wolves”. As wolves return to areas where there is little experience of living with them, there is a need to better understand what types of behaviour are normal and what are unusual. Wolf attacks were very rare in the twentieth century and unknown in Europe in the 21st century. None-the-less, information on how to react to wild animals is clearly lacking in many locations. Several Platform members are engaged on this topic. IUCN-LCIE are developing a way to collect information on bold wolves. EUROPARC is also organising a workshop on ‘Fear versus facts: effective communication, a means to improve co-existence with large carnivores in protected areas’ as part of their annual conference 18-21 September in Scotland.