At the simple mention of his name in a conversation, looks change and betray contrasting emotions. The wolf is an animal that leaves no one indifferent in the French countryside. Carry out social surveys on your account, as we did in a study recently published in the journal People and Natureis often a challenge.
This is evidenced by the contrasting reactions I faced during this field investigation. As she prepares to respond favorably to my request for an interview from her garden in which she is busy, this septuagenarian from Tartas immediately turns on her heel to take refuge in her home, slamming the porteporte :
““Ah no, this beast is Evil, don’t count on me! »”
A few weeks later, in Villegly, the face of a young woman lights up in the half-open door:
““The wolf? That's a sign, look, it's my favorite animal, I love it! » she exclaims, lifting her sleeve to show me a tattoo of the animal covering her entire arm.”
Finally, it is neither enthusiasm nor fear that this young farmer from around Puy-Guillaume is talking about, but rather a certain form of anger and helplessness in the face of the problems that this can pose. predator to breeders:
““You understand, we see what’s happening in the Alps and we don’t want that at all here. It's a beautiful animal, certainly, but that's all. »”
The wolves are gaining ground
It is to better understand this diversity of emotions and attitudes towards the wolf (Canis lupusCanis lupus), that I carried out a survey in rural France in spring 2019. Indeed, since 1992, wolves have recolonized part of the territory from Italy.
Thanks to favorable European legislation, there were 92 permanent presence zones (ZPP) at the time of the study in 2019, that is to say those territories where three presence indices were recorded during two consecutive winters. . This number has since increased, with 145 ZPPs for 128 packs in summer 2021).
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This lupine presence is not without challenges for several sectors of activity, such as agriculture and in particular pastoralism (due to attacks on livestock), hunting (because of perceived competition for game), even tourism (presence of herd protection dogs disturbing hikers).
This natural recolonization of the territory also represents a positive phenomenon for some who see it as a reconquest of the wild world, an added value in ecosystems, associated with potential positive experiences.
Emotional debates, but little research on emotions associated with wolves
The coexistence between humans and wolves is an eminently political issue often giving rise to passionate, emotionally charged debates and yet, little research has been carried out on the emotions associated with wolves, with the exception of the pioneering work of Professor Maarten Jacobs in the European context.
With a team of around ten people, we therefore interviewed the inhabitants of randomly selected municipalities in rural and semi-rural areas, who are more directly concerned by cohabitation with wolves than the inhabitants of large metropolises, of whom we know already that they have more favorable attitudes towards the wolf.
Map of France representing the distribution of rural towns and villages randomly selected for the study. Click on each city to see the number of study participants and the distance to the nearest permanent wolf zone.
The aim of this study was to focus on the emotions (or emotional states) expressed in reaction to different situations involving wolves. The challenge was to go further than previous work which focused on decontextualized emotions associated with the animal (or emotional dispositions).
Surprise and curiosity before fear
In other words, rather than asking participants “what emotions do wolves evoke in you, in general?” “, we wanted to know “what emotions do these wolves evoke in you, in this specific context? » Participants could express one or more emotions among seven so-called basic emotions: interest, fear, joy, anger, surprise, sadness, disgust, at various intensities.
To do this, we extracted six videos from the platform YouTubeYouTube describing possible interactions between humans and wolves. These were sequences filmed by amateurs in order to make the feeling of immersion in these different situations as credible as possible.
10-second video presenting a context of interaction with an isolated wolf during a walk in the forest.
10-second video presenting a context of interaction with a pack of wolves crossing a field.
Our analyzes show that surprise is the emotion most often expressed by survey participants, followed by interest and fear. This result first shows that people do not expect to encounter wolves in French rural landscapes, even though they have been in a dynamic of recolonization in France for more than thirty years.
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This effect of surprise partially explains why sightings of wolves are often reported in the press, some local populations having never been confronted with this presence. However, it is accepted that wolves are capable of covering distances of the order of several hundred kilometers during the dispersal phase (when young wolves leave their pack to settle in a new territory).
Intense emotions, but little hostility
What about negative emotions? They are clearly present in the responses of survey participants, but fear and anger are not the emotional states most often expressed.
The emotion of anger, often mentioned in public debates on the conservation of wolves in France, does not seem associated with the wolf itself, but rather with certain specific contexts of interaction involving the agricultural environment (pack seen crossing a field, isolated individual seen lurking around cattle).
Anger, which is an emotion rooted in feelings of injustice, therefore reflects human conflicts related to the management of wolves, rather than a particularly strong aversion towards the animal.
Overall, the great diversity of emotions expressed, with varying intensities depending on the context of interaction, does not depict a atmosphereatmosphere particularly hostile towards wolves in French rural landscapes. Certain interaction contexts describing a certain proximity to humans (wolves observed on a hiking trail or on a road) arouse intense emotions and, for two of these contexts, relatively positive ones.
Emotions, driving force behind the construction of attitudes towards wolves
The study also demonstrates a very close link between the emotions expressed by the participants and the attitudes they have towards wolves. Unlike emotions, which are reactions to videos, attitudes involve a positive or negative evaluation of wolves and their recolonization of the territory. Attitudes involve more reflective cognitive processes.
In our study, anger and joy were the emotions that exerted the strongest influence on attitude formation. On the other hand, fear, although represented in most studies on emotions towards adults carnivorescarnivoreshad half as much influence as the joy of observing wolves in the wild.
Our research therefore confirms that emotions are powerful drivers for understanding constructionconstruction attitudes favorable or unfavorable to wolves. They thus play a crucial role in the decision-making processes that govern the conservation of large carnivores.
The end of the big bad wolf?
A better understanding of these emotions would make it possible to dispassionate certain debates, and in particular to alleviate irrational fears regarding these animals, attacks on humans being almost non-existent in Europe.
This understanding would also make it possible to not neglect positive emotions such as joy and curiosity towards these animals. Thus, we would no longer see only the costs, but also the potential benefits associated with the presence of these animals in our environment, which would constitute a real paradigm shift.
These results also highlight the significant gap between the emotions expressed by the general public, which vary greatly depending on the different contexts of interaction with wolves, and the generally negative representations of large carnivores in the press. This discrepancy needs to be better studied to portray the conservation of large carnivores more precisely and fairly.
Indeed, the media have a crucial role in constructing stories around coexistence between humans and wildlifewildlife wild, and even more so in the formation of attitudes towards the wolf. The French media landscape is no exception.
Finally, it is essential that research on the human dimensions of the conservation of large carnivores be encouraged. As part of the 2024-2029 National Action Plan “wolf and breeding activities”, and in line with the majority of scientific studies published to date in France and recent Calls for Projects from the Ministry of Ecological Transition, the emphasis was mainly placed on the ecological aspects of wolf recolonization (prediction of recolonization zones, attacks, effects of shooting on population dynamics, etc.).
Although necessary in many respects, these studies only address part of the challenges posed by the recolonization of wolves, which also have emotional, cognitive, behavioral, social and economic issues, linked to the various actors involved in coexistence with these animals.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
