Short version: Tolerance for wolves on the landscape is increasing. but those with negative views have a significant role in management, despite being a small percentage of the population.
People’s tolerance for wolves goes up when they see one. It also goes up when they don’t.
That apparent contradiction explains why attitudes toward wolves have grown consistently friendlier over the past decade, according to a new study in the journal Conservation Science and Practice.
The study, released Dec. 12, was co-authored by husband-wife duo Alexander and Elizabeth Metcalf of the University of Montana School of Forestry, Justin Gude and Michael Lewis of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and John Baldridge of UM’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research. It compared a 2023 wolf-tolerance survey to results from the same questions asked in 2012 and 2017, reaching a total of 7,607 Montanans over that decade.