The following summary is taken from a report published early in 2002 authored by European researchers. The entire report is available here
Because of the large scales at which large carnivores live, their conservation cannot occur only within protected areas. They must therefore be conserved within multi-use landscapes where conflicts with humans occur. Conflicts are diverse and include depredation on livestock and competition for wild ungulates. However, one of the most serious is the fear of being injured or killed by a large carnivore. Man-killing by tigers, lions, leopards, pumas and bears (brown bear, black bear, polar bear and sloth bear) occurs on a regular basis with hundreds of people being killed annually on a worldwide basis. Although the danger that wolves pose to human safety remains controversial, many people that live in wolf range report that they are afraid of wolves. This interdisciplinary report has two aims. Firstly, we attempt to examine the existing data about wolf attacks on humans during the last few hundred years around the world. Secondly, we examine data concerning self-reported levels of fear of wolves and examine the existing data on fear in general. To locate data bout wolf attacks we have examined the ecological, medical, veterinary and historical literature, and utilised a wide contact network of people that have worked with wolves throughout the world to try and identify unpublished cases from recent times. For historical cases we have only used episodes for which there is some form of contemporary written documentation, this excludes cases that only arise from the oral tradition. Data concerning wolf attacks on humans is highly fragmented and of very variable quality. As a result it has been impossible to provide a total summary of the numbers of people killed by wolves during any given period. Rather we have compiled a set of case studies that we have judged to be reliable from various parts of North America and Eurasia. Because of the nature of the data, many records need to be treated with caution. We have looked for broad patterns associated with wolf attacks on people. From the data collected there appears to be no doubt that wolves have on occasion attacked and killed people. We identified three types of wolf attack, (1) attacks by rabid wolves, (2) predatory attacks where wolves appear to have regarded humans as prey, and (3) defensive attacks where a wolf has bitten a person in response to being cornered or provoked. The majority of attacks concern wolves with rabies. Although wolves do not serve as a reservoir for rabies, they can catch it from other species. It appears that wolves develop an exceptionally severe "furious" phase and can bite a large number of people (>30) in a single attack. We have found records from Italy, France, Finland, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, the Baltic States, Russia, Iran, Kazakstan, Afghanistan, China, India and North America. The earliest record we found of such an attack was from 1557 in Germany, and the most recent was from Latvia in 2001. Up until the development of post-exposure treatments (first developed by Pasteur in the 1890's and refined in the 1950's) bites from rabid wolves were almost always fatal. Treatments are presently so good that the majority of victims now survive. However, the severity of attacks by rabid wolves is such that some victims are killed outright, or are bitten in the head so that post-exposure treatments do not have time to act before the disease develops. As the incidence of rabies has been greatly reduced in both domestic dogs and wildlife throughout western Europe and North America, the incidence of attacks by rabid wolves has dropped. In the Middle East and Asia, there are still many attacks each year. The literature contains many examples of wolves being provoked (trapped, cornered, people entering their dens) without attacking humans. However, we have found a number of cases where provoked wolves have bitten people in an attempt to get away. In most cases these concerned shepherds attempting to defend their sheep and trying to kill wolves with a stick. In no case have the wolves directly killed anybody in such situations. Unprovoked attacks by non-rabid wolves on people are very rare, and the vast majority of wolves do not regard people as being prey. However, we have found a number of incidents where predatory attacks have occurred. In Europe, the largest numbers of records come from pre 20th century France, Estonia and northern Italy, where historians have looked systematically for records of such events. The most famous event is from the Gevaudan area in France where historical records indicate that over 100 people were killed in the period 1764-1767. The wolves responsible were believed to be hybrids between wild wolves and large shepherd dogs. From these three regions several hundred people appear to have been killed from 1750 until 1900. Additional records from the pre 20th century period come from Sweden, Finland and Norway. In Norway, there is a single record of a 6-year-old girl being killed in 1800. From Sweden there are records of 4 children being killed between 1727 and 1763, and 12 (11 children and one woman) being killed in 1820-1821. This latter episode (Gysinge episode) was believed to be due to a single wolf that had been raised in captivity before escaping. In Finland (and Russian Karelia) there have been a number of episodes during the 19th century where people have been killed. Most of these events occurred in 5 clusters Kaukola (1831 - 8 children and 1 woman killed), Kemio (1836 - 3 children killed), Kivennapa (1839-1859 - 20 children and 1 adult killed), Tammerfors (1877 - 9 children killed) and Åbo (1879-1882 between 22 and 35 children killed). Predatory attacks from the 20th century are much rarer. There are reports of 5 children being killed in Poland (1937) and 4 children being killed in Spain (1957-1974). There are also controversial reports of 36 children being killed in the Kirov region of Russia (1944-1953). While these events remain unconfirmed, the details provided in the accounts make them credible. There are no documented cases of people being killed in predatory attacks by wolves in North America during the 20th century. However, there have been eight well documented attacks, mainly in protected areas, where non-rabid wolves have injured people during the last 20 years. People killed by wolves have been recorded in India since the 19th century. In the last 20 years there have been a number of scientific investigations in three regions, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Andhra Pradesh. In these three regions there have a number of episodes where at least 273 children are believed to have been killed by wolves. The victims of predatory attacks tend to be mainly children, and to a lesser extent adult women, indicating that wolves are being selective. In contrast, victims of attacks by rabid wolves tended to be mainly adults, indicating that rabid wolves bite people at random. Attacks by rabid wolves cluster in the winter and spring, whereas predatory attacks are concentrated in the late summer. We identified four
factors that are associated with wolf attacks on humans.
In conclusion, we believe that there is good evidence that people have been killed by both healthy and rabid wolves during the last centuries. The incidence of attacks appears to have dropped dramatically during the 20th century. A fair summary of our results would be "wolves have killed people, most attacks have been by rabid wolves, predatory attacks are aimed mainly children, attacks in general are unusual but episodic, and humans are not part of their normal prey". When the frequency of wolf attacks on people is compared to that from other large carnivores or wildlife in general it is obvious that wolves are among the least dangerous species for their size. Given the fact that wolves have posed a threat to human safety it is easy to understand why we have a "cultural fear" of wolves, which is reinforced through stories and mythology. Recent surveys in Norway indicate that fear of wolves is still widespread among people even though wolves have been virtually absent during recent decades (until the recent recovery) and nobody has been killed or injured for 200 years. Only 23% of Norwegians accept that wolves should live within 10 km of their home, and 66% completely or partially agree that they would become concerned for their family's safety outdoors if wolves were living in the area. 48% of respondents answer that they are "very much afraid of wolves", and 40% answer that they are "a little afraid of wolves". However, it is important to remember that there is a clear majority of Norwegians in favour of wolves existing in the country. There are several factors that affect a persons self-reported level of fear of wolves. Women, the elderly and people lacking highereducation report higher levels of fear than men, young people and those with higher education. In addition, dog owners report less fear than those without dogs, and people who suffer economic loss because of large carnivores report greater fear than those without economic losses. Inhabitants of areas where large carnivores are present report less fear of the specific species than those living in areas where the species is absent, however the reported level of concern for the family's safety outdoors is higher among those who live in an area where wolves occur. People with a "traditional" political orientation also report higher levels of fear than those with a "radical" political orientation. Finally, people with a perceived personal powerlessness report greater levels of fear than those who perceive that they have a greater level of personal control. This leads into one of the most important aspects of the fear of wolves. There is little doubt that a large part of the "fear of wolves" is a direct fear for personal safety, and the results reported above indicate that this is justified to some extent. However, it is apparent that much of the fear of wolves is also dependent on a person's social and cultural situation. In other words, it is a fear of the wolf as a symbol of negative outside influences on local issues. Powerful urban elites are blamed for these problems, which include a feeling of reduced life quality resulting from the fear of wolves. The attitude that people have towards wolves is also influenced by their confidence in different sources of knowledge (scientific knowledge versus lay knowledge). Those with confidence with scientific knowledge are likely to be more positive towards wolves, however large segments of rural communities have low confidence in this source of knowledge There has been a conflict between lay knowledge and scientific knowledge with regards to the danger wolves pose to human safety. Since scientific knowledge holds a hegemonic position to lay knowledge, the contestation of claims that wolves are harmless may be an element in a struggle against the dominance of this form of knowledge. However, the claim that wolves are harmless is not actually a result of scientific investigation as this is the first serious attempt to review the topic. The results of this review that documents that wolves can present risks to human safety under certain conditions should hopefully go a long way to reconciliation between lay and scientific knowledge on this topic. Implications for present day Scandinavia - None of the factors associated with an increased risk of wolf attacks are present in modern day Scandinavia. Rabies is absent, there is unlikely to be a future where wolves are not hunted or controlled, and habitat quality is high with very abundant prey. In addition, the present socio-economic situation does not place people in high-risk situations. However, based on these results we have made a number of management recommendations that should help to reduce both the actual risks and the level of fear concerning wolf attacks. (1) Keep wolves wild. Any wolves that appear to loose their fear for humans or act in an aggressive manner should be removed from the population. Carefully regulated hunting may be useful in maintaining shyness and will in addition provide a feeling of local empowerment and control over the wolf situation. (2) Dialogue. Local involvement in wolf census work, increased contact with researchers and managers, local involvement in research and management, and increased information about research activity should also help reduce tensions. (3) Prey. The prey base available for wolves in Scandinavia today can be described as very good. It will be important for game managers to ensure it remains this way even when they have to include wolf predation into management plans. (4) Reaction planning. Wildlife management agencies should establish reaction plans as to how to respond to wolves that act in an aggressive manner or lose their shyness. These plans should be co-ordinated with those for brown bears. (5) Rabies. Scandinavia is presently rabies free and the risks of it occurring appear to be very low. However, there should be clear plans as to how to react should it enter Norway. (6) Time. The data indicates that levels of fear will decrease with time as people become accustomed to the presence of wolves. 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