Group mounts image makeover for endangered carnivores

Wolverines -- large members of the weasel family -- have been reduced to a few hundred in remote areas of Scandinavia

February 26, 1999
Web posted at: 9:30 AM EST

The future of Europe's large carnivores – lynxes, wolves and brown bears – will be determined by human attitudes, said the World Wide Fund for Nature Tuesday as it launched a campaign to support the coexistence of people and predators.

Loss of habitat and prey, coupled with unsubstantiated fears inspired by children's' books and myths about the danger predators pose to human life has led to their near extinction in Europe.

"We are at a crucial time in history," said William Pratesi, coordinator for the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe. "We have the opportunity to exploit nature or we can co-exist with it and leave our children the opportunity to see large carnivores in the wild."

The Campaign for Europe's Carnivores aims to challenge the prejudices against these predators and help fund projects that allow humans and predators to live in the same environment.

With wolves beginning to return to old haunts in France, Switzerland and Germany, and continued human-animal conflict involving wolverine, lynx and brown bear in other areas, the need to secure public support for carnivores is urgent, said the conservation organization.

"Large carnivores elicit strong emotions and their management is more socio-political than biological," said Alistair Bath, a specialist on the human dimensions in wildlife management and a consultant to the conservation organization.

"The large carnivores think there is enough space for them to return to many areas in Europe. The key element to their recovery is whether people are willing to share that space with them."

Carnivores in Europe currently occupy fragmented landscapes dominated by humans. The Iberian lynx, for example, is confined to about 10 isolated pockets of Spain and Portugal where they number less than 800.

"If current trends continue, the Iberian lynx will probably disappear in the first half of the 21st century," said lynx expert Pablo Ferreras of the Estacion Biologica de Doñana in Spain. "This would be a huge embarrassment for Europe, since it would represent the world's first well-documented extinction of a wild feline species."

Brown bear populations are small and fragmented in southern, central and western Europe. Like wolves, they also face a hostile reception wherever they move into new areas.

Wolverines – large members of the weasel family – have been reduced to a few hundred in remote areas of Scandinavia. The Eurasian lynx has disappeared from much of its original habitat and where populations are starting to recover, conflict with people remains a major stumbling block.

The Campaign for Europe's Carnivores will benefit projects such as the Carpathian Large Carnivore project in Romania, home to dense populations of wolves, bears and Eurasian lynxes that live in close proximity to large numbers of people and sheep. The project is designed to create a model area to show how people and carnivores can coexist.

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