By: MCKENZIE SUAREZ
Wisconsin researchers say that farmers and hunters fear wolves and are angered by wolf biologists.
A study, published in the September edition of the journal Conservation Biology, says study participants feared wolves would kill their animals, get too close to their homes and threaten their families.
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Wisconsin Department of National Resources conducted the study.
They examined how killing wolves affect attitudes, beliefs and behavioral inclinations of farmers and hunters.
The researchers used focus groups to identify the attitudes that farmers, deer hunters and bear hunters have toward wolves
Most of the participants showed negative attitudes towards wolves, according to the study. Most were inclined to kill wolves illegally when they came too close.
Christine Browne-Nunez, a post-doctoral research associate working for the University of Wisconsin-Madison during the study, said that the focus groups revealed that the participants’ dislike for wolves is complex. Most of the participants were angry because of their perception that the state Department of Natural Resources failed to manage high wolf populations and the dangers they caused.
Among the responses recorded by the study:
■A northeastern bear hunter: “They talk wolf policy and deer policy and everything and managing our predators up north here and they have all these meetings down in Madison where all these anti-hunters don’t know jack about what’s going on up here, and they’re controlling what happens up here. We know what’s going on because we live here, and yet they’re telling us down there what we have to do up here.”
■Another: “I’m going to tell you straight out, plain and simple, the DNR is not honest in what they say. They lie, they lie, they lie.”
During the study, authorities opened a wolf season allowing the legal hunting of wolves in hopes of managing the population.
Participants were still unsatisfied when wolf hunting was legalized, according to the study.
They were either unaware of the permits, not able to get their hands on them or thought that they were not truly helping control wolves, the study said.
People felt-powerless, unheard and mislead regarding the population control of wolves, Browne-Nunez said.
“The themes projected within the study reveal how people felt,” she said. “It gave a voice to those who believed they didn’t have power or a voice.”
Browne-Nunez said the study was conducted to help policymakers, legislators and conservationists deal with wolves.
The focus groups revealed the complexity of the thoughts of local farmers and hunters in Wisconsin that can help create programs and policy to solve the issues regarding wolf management, she said.