Carnivores make comeback in Europe; coexist with humans

Carnivores make comeback in Europe; coexist with humans

Despite cramped quarters, carnivorous populations thrive in Europe

Carnivorous animals, particularly bear, lynx wolves and wolverines, have made a big-time comeback in Europe lately, a new study finds. Though nearly pushed to extinction about 100 years ago, at least one carnivorous species in ample numbers can be found across one third of mainland Europe. Oddly enough, despite the lack of habitat, fearsome predators and humans appear to be getting along just fine.

While the U.S. and Europe both have laws in place protecting carnivorous species from over-hunting, their strategies are different. In the U.S., where wilderness is plentiful, predators have been protected in national parks where they’re kept largely away from people. Europe, with its far older history of human occupation, didn’t have that convenience and had to take a different approach.

“The large carnivores are an example of species that have benefited from this pan-European legislation and that the Habitats Directive works”, says Guillaume Chapron.

Unable to sequester large carnivores in expansive parks, mainland Europeans had to take other measures to address concerns about close proximity to predators, namely the predation of livestock. Early landowners learned to coexist with carnivores, but as numbers dwindled some lost or abandoned these strategies. Modern inventions, like the electric fence and guard dogs, allowed landowners to once again live alongside carnivores without resorting to a “shoot-first” mitigation strategy.

Over time, the results have been impressive. Europe is now home to twice as many wolves as the U.S. (excluding Alaska) despite half the landmass and twice as densely populated.

76 researchers contributed to the study, and compiled the following list of success stories:

  • The brown bear is currently present in 22 countries. It is the most common large carnivore in Europe with 17,000 individuals that can be clustered into ten populations. All populations are relatively stable or slightly expanding, although a few remain critically small.
  • Wolves are the second most common species, about 12,000 individuals, with ten populations in 28 countries. Most of the populations are increasing, but a couple of populations seem to be decreasing. One Spanish population is on the brink to extinction.
  • Lynx are present in 23 countries, with 9,000 individuals. Most of the eleven populations are stable but some of them are decreasing.
  • Wolverines live only in Sweden, Norway and Finland, in two populations with 1,250 individuals. Both populations are increasing.

Guillaume Chapron believes that Europe can be an example for other parts of the world.

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