Fear towards the four large carnivores in Norway; a geospatial survey from 2010 and 2019

Abstract

Abstract Through the last centuries it has become high disturbances and interventions in natural areas, which has forced wildlife to interact with humans. This has led to human-wildlife conflicts (HWC), where animals have become a threat to peoples’ safety or livelihood. These conflicts have often ended with species becoming endangered or extinct globally, including Norway. There are small populations of wolverine (Gulo gulo), wolf (Canis lupus), lynx (Lynx lynx), and brown bear (Ursus arctos) in Norway. Fear of carnivores is one of the many aspects in the human-large carnivore conflict. This could be fear of being injured or even killed in an encounter, especially those living in large carnivore areas, where the probability of encountering one is much higher. Through two PhD-surveys executed in 2010 and 2019 I looked at peoples fear between years, spatial patterns of fear within and outside management areas for each large carnivore, and peoples’ perception of the population size of each large carnivore in their living area (municipality). Both methods were performed the same way, where maximum 5 people per municipality had to go through the surveys of 30-40 questions in a phone survey by NORSTAT. My results revealed a lower level of fear towards all four carnivores in 2019 compared to 2010, while fear in the spatial pattern varied between species; fear towards lynx and wolverine was higher outside their management areas, conversely fear towards wolf was higher within the management area than outside, and fear towards brown bear revealed no difference in areas. By including demographic variables, the only change that occurred in the spatial pattern was fear towards wolf, which no longer showed a difference between areas. Meanwhile, peoples’ perception of the carnivore situation in their municipality revealed low level of fear in the perception of not enough carnivores, while perception of too many carnivores showed a high level of fear. This applies for fear towards brown bear, wolf, and lynx, while it only applies for wolverine in the category of too few wolverines in their own municipality. Lynx was the only carnivore who revealed a high level of fear in the perception of uncertainty. I further discuss causes behind peoples’ fear and further measures should be studied to find ways to help people to manage their fear or even reduce fear to assist the reduce of large carnivore conflict in Norway.

Key words: fear, large carnivores, human-large carnivore conflict, municipality, management areas