DOI: 10.5061/dryad.w6m905r2k
title: Europeans support large carnivore recovery while opposing both further population growth and hunting

description: After centuries of persecution in Europe, large carnivores are now
 recovering. Whether this conservation success continues likely depends on
 public support. Here, we show using a survey of ten thousand respondents
 across European Union Member States that, while support for the recovery
 of wolves, bears, and lynx remains strong, most respondents oppose both
 further population growth and hunting—particularly of wolves. Attitudes
 are remarkably consistent across rural and urban populations, and many
 respondents express no strong position, suggesting that large carnivores
 are less polarizing than often portrayed. The recent amendment to the
 Habitats Directive, which grants Member States greater flexibility to
 manage their wolf populations, appears broadly aligned with public
 opinion, as long as its implementation does not lead to population
 declines. However, the presence of views in tension—rejecting both
 population growth and hunting— may pose challenges for designing policies
 that are both science-based and democratic.
description: We conducted an opinion survey between 2022 and 2023 of 10,807
 respondents across all 23 European countries that host breeding
 populations of large carnivores, using the Qualtrics online survey
 platform. For each surveyed country, we aimed to include at least 500
 respondents, with a balanced distribution across key demographic
 categories: an equal number of female and male participants, equal
 representation of individuals younger and older than the country-specific
 median age, and an equal number of respondents from rural and urban areas
 (self-reported by participants). Respondents were asked a series of
 questions to assess their attitudes toward large carnivore recovery in
 Europe, their views on desirable future population trends for wolves,
 lynx, and brown bears, and their opinions on the hunting and culling of
 these species. In addition, we collected demographic and political
 covariates.
description: # Europeans support large carnivore recovery while opposing both further
 population growth and hunting Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.w6m905r2k](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.w6m905r2k) ##
 Description of the data and file structure ### Files and variables ####
 File: survey.Rdata **Description:**  Answers from respondents are in the
 object ‘opinion.data’ in the file ‘survey.Rdata’ Every row is an
 individual respondent and columns show question answers from this
 respondent. ``` head(opinion.data) Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6_1 Q6_2 Q6_3 Q7 Q8 Q9
 Q10 Q11 Q12 country 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 26 2 4 3 3 AT 5 5 5 5 1 1 1 1 1 30 1
 3 1 1 AT 3 4 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 42 2 3 2 2 AT 3 3 4 3 3 4 3 3 2 58 1 2 2 1 AT 4
 4 4 4 1 4 3 3 2 28 2 4 1 1 AT 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 43 2 2 3 3 AT ```
 Questions and answers are as follows: **Q1:** Large carnivores such as
 wolves, brown bears and lynx have been recolonizing parts of Europe in
 recent decades. Generally speaking, would you say that you support or
 oppose the recovery of large carnivores?\ 1: Strongly oppose\ 2: Oppose\
 3: Neutral or not sure\ 4: Support\ 5: Strongly support **Q2:** In my
 opinion, wolf populations in Europe should be…\ 1: Decreased greatly\ 2:
 Decreased\ 3: Stay about the same\ 4: Increased\ 5: Increased greatly\ 6:
 I don’t know **Q3:** In my opinion, lynx populations in Europe should be…\
 1: Decreased greatly\ 2: Decreased\ 3: Stay about the same\ 4: Increased\
 5: Increased greatly\ 6: I don’t know **Q4:** In my opinion, brown bear
 populations in Europe should be…\ 1: Decreased greatly\ 2: Decreased\ 3:
 Stay about the same\ 4: Increased\ 5: Increased greatly\ 6: I don’t know
 **Q5:** Generally speaking, would you say that you support or oppose
 hunting large carnivores?\ 1: Strongly oppose\ 2: Oppose\ 3: Neutral or
 not sure\ 4: Support\ 5: Strongly support To what extent do you agree or
 disagree with the following:\ **Q6_1:** If a bear attacks a person, that
 bear should be killed regardless of the circumstances.\ **Q6_2:** Wolves
 that kill livestock should be killed.\ **Q6_3:** A lynx that kills
 livestock should be killed.\ 1: Strongly disagree\ 2: Somewhat disagree\
 3: Neither agree nor disagree\ 4: Somewhat agree\ 5: Strongly agree
 **Q7:** What is your sex?\ 1: Female\ 2: Male **Q8:** Enter the year you
 were born\ in YYYY format (note: data shows respondent's age) **Q9:**
 How would you describe your current residence or community?\ 1: Isolated
 house / Village\ 2: City / Large urban area **Q10:** When it comes to
 politics, please indicate which of the following you consider yourself.\
 1: Extreme left\ 2: Left (socio-democrat)\ 3: Centre\ 4: Right
 (conservative)\ 5: Extreme right **Q11:** Below are a number of actions
 you could take in order to support the conservation of large carnivores in
 your country. Please indicate how likely or unlikely you are to... Write
 to or call a politician to express your support for carnivore restoration
 efforts.\ 1: Very Unlikely\ 2: Somewhat Unlikely\ 3: Undecided\ 4:
 Somewhat Likely\ 5: Very Likely **Q12:** Below are a number of actions you
 could take in order to oppose large carnivore populations in your country.
 Please indicate how likely or unlikely you are to... write to or call a
 politician to express your opposition to carnivore restoration efforts.\
 1: Very Unlikely\ 2: Somewhat Unlikely\ 3: Undecided\ 4: Somewhat Likely\
 5: Very Likely country: country where the respondent is from:\ AT:
 Austria\ BE: Belgium\ BG: Bulgaria\ CZ: Czechia\ DE: Germany\ DK: Denmark\
 EE: Estonia\ ES: Spain\ FI: Finland\ FR: France\ GR: Greece\ HR: Croatia\
 HU: Hungary\ IT: Italy\ LT: Lithuania\ LV: Latvia\ NL: Netherlands\ PL:
 Poland\ PT: Portugal\ RO: Romania\ SE: Sweden\ SI: Slovenia\ SK: Slovakia
 ## Code/software All analyses were conducted using the R statistical
 software v. 4.5.0. ## Access information A reproducible analysis based on
 this dataset is available
 at [https://doi.org/10.24433/CO.3129691.v2](https://doi.org/10.24433/CO.3129691.v2) ## Human subjects data All participants provided informed consent prior to participation to the survey, and responses were de-identified by Qualtrics before being made available to the research team. The study was GDPR compliant and approved by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (permit 2022-04276-01).