The Frequently Asked Questions section of the EU Platform website provides a list of common questions which come up regarding the presence of large carnivores in Europe. Here we select one to present in the newsletter, but further questions and answers can be viewed online.

What is the “utility” of large carnivores in nature?

Large carnivores are predators and are therefore at the top of the trophic pyramid of the ecosystem. They thus play a crucial regulatory role over ungulate populations, balancing the overall function of natural ecosystems. Some large carnivores are also scavengers (i.e. wolverine) and therefore also play a sanitary role in the ecosystem. Furthermore, omnivorous large carnivore species (i.e. brown bear), contribute through their diet cycle to plants and fruits seeds dispersal thus enhancing the vegetation structure and diversity in a given ecosystem.

Several published studies from over a 50-year time span, and analyses of the composition of large predator guilds (species exploiting a particular resource) and prey densities in boreal and temperate forests showed that predation by large carnivores, especially wolves and bears, with overlapping ranges, apparently limits densities of large herbivores. In areas with wolves, herbivore density increased only slightly with increasing productivity. These predator effects are consistent with the exploitation ecosystems hypothesis and appear to occur across a broad range of net primary productivities. Results are also consistent with theory on trophic cascades, suggesting widespread and top-down forcing by large carnivores on large herbivores in forest biomes across the northern hemisphere. These findings have important conservation implications involving not only the management of large carnivores but also that of large herbivores and plant communities.