Human-wolf interactions: the importance of hands-on meetings.

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Human-wolf interactions the importance of
hands-on meetings. By Anna Chowdhury
Behavioural study.
Attitude survey
Further implications and conclusion
Prejudices about wolves stem from long tradition
of using the animal as negative symbol, in
fables, pagan religions and Christianity,
children stories and proverbs in use still today.
Has been a way to rectify the torture, poisoning,
mutilation and mass destruction of wolves done by
man throughout times. Now however, peoples
attitudes begin to change, and with greater
knowlegde of the wolves comes higher tolerance
and acceptance.
Social communication between individuals is
partly done by visual signals, which include
behavioural patterns (passive submission (D)
active submission (G) playinvite (H)), body
posture, tail and ear positions. Signals of
submission and dominance deflects aggression and
ultimaly lead to a more harmonised pack.
Further studies are needed to compare and
determine wether or not the amount of social
interactions in the focal group differs from
other captive packs, both human and non human
socialized, and what benefits this yields for the
group.
Do hands-on meetings between captive wolves and
people have the power to alter peoples negative
attitudes towards the wolf, and do they affect
the wolves behaviour?
No statistically significant difference in social
behaviours were found. 12 of the groups time
were spent in social interactions with each
other, 70 of their time resting. In general the
frequency of resting behaviours were higher when
no humans were present, leading to higher
frequency of moving around and socially
interacting during hands-on meetings. The omega
standing for 30 of the groups social
interactions, while the third ranking male, the
one engaging the most in dominance and aggressive
behaviours, due to uncertainty or highest
motivation to climb up the hierarchy ladder,
stand for 23 of social interactions.
For further implications see last page.
To determine if the hands-on meetings really has
the power to alter peoples negative attitudes a
selection of other target groups, hunters,
livestock holders, company conference groups, are
needed.
Some statistically significant differences were
found for some questions, although this due to
diffrences in amount of respondents in
classification levels rather than diffreences in
answers depending on classification levels.
Behavioural study (see next page) Video
recordings of bachelor group at Kolmården Zoo
were made, during times with humans present in
the enclosure and without. Frequency of different
social behavioours and activities were recorded
to detemine the effects of hands-on meetings
Of 128 respondents 75 knew before hand how many
wild wolves live in Scandinavia today, and 70
felt it was very nice that wild wolves existed in
Sweden. 85 were first timers, and all
respondents felt their meeting had been a
positive experience. 85 claimed they had learnt
something new, and 92 felt the wolves were good
ambassadeurs for their species, although 43 said
the wolves felt more like dogs than wild wolves.
The main motis making it acceptable to hunt and
kill wolves was if the wolf acts fearless of
humans and start vacating urban areas. 78 also
felt that media represented the wolf wrongly, and
as more dangerous than in actual life. For
further implications see next page.
These studies suggest that hands-on meetings
could be a tool for conserving and preserving the
wolf, and that it also could be if not
beneficiary for a captive pack in any other way,
it could be considered as an environmental
enrichment, increasing activity in a pack and
enlightening the animals days by having them
interact with different people and exposing them
to different smells.
Attitude survey (see page 3) Questionnaire with
38 questions of peoples previous knowlegde,
experience, attitudes and evalutations of
meetings were handed out to 16 different groups.
Some questions were answered before the meeting
began, others afterwards.
Focal group, Kolmården Zoo
Tromb (alpha)
Korax (beta)
Isor (3rd)
Atlas (4th)
Zeke (omega)