Wolves: Europe vs America

[Mizix]

Here in Switzerland wolves are protected to some degree, but farmers and farmers unions are lobbying their way into the law to allow for easy hunting. Thing is, wolves were reintroduced clandestinely by some Italian animal right's association (can't remember which one) and of course they passed the border and installed in the Alps; it was not a public effort to reintroduce animal diversity or whatever, thus it was totally uncontrolled and led to many damages to livestock and rage. The other thing is that wolves and bears disappeared here because farmers hunted them to "extinction" back in the late 1800 early 1900. Why? Because people died. There are rocks on our mountains with hundred of tiny cross carved in them to remember those who died from bears/wolves attacks and pretty much every family has some horror story to tell (well, now less because the generation that lived during that time is almost all dead).

[apples]

people kill off wolves and then wonder why the ecosystem around them goes to shit

well they do now, people didnt care about overpopulation of game wildlife in ye olden

but now that deer are literally causing droughts in cali and other random problems wherever in the world, people start realizing the importance of predators

[derpkitteh]

the only people that ever really gave a damn about the wilds in europe were the druids, and they were wiped out a long long long time ago by the romans.

everyone else just saw them as a nuisance for killing herds i guess. so the image stuck.

the native americans however, they were ALMOST wiped out, but their culture still survives and that's where any reverence would come from there. but you go up to any dumbass farmer you can't hardly understand when he speaks, and he'll be a frothing at the mouth retard over them.

[Deleted]

Sadly, we don't have wolves in the Netherlands.

We did have one visiting from Germany once that crossed the border and was spotted near a village.
The press talked about it for at least 2 weeks.

[vitor210]

Here in Portugal and Spain we have a rare breed called the Iberian wolf which was almost driven to extinction by hunters and farmers that didn't want the beasts to kill their animals. We rescued a few and made several "santuarys" and natural reserves in both countries where the wolves can live freely. Some of those santuarys have an high way go right through them so there's special bridges that go over the highway that are exclusive for the wolves to use, it's realy cool

[Yunru]

Wolfs here are protected species. They pretty much just live in south part of country, where is a lot of forest and bad farming land.

http://www.volkovi.si/?page_id=35 (if you want to gogle translate)

http://www.mop.gov.si/fileadmin/mop....e_ris_volk.jpg

[Grimbold21]

Wasn't it Norway that recently planned to hunt a great portion of it's wolf population?

[Khadgar]

It doesn't get much worse than being approached by a pack of hungry wolves

[Alydael]

All you need to do is come to Poland. We have wolves, buffaloes and trump-like ppl ruled our country.

I heard you guys also had perrogies, potato pancakes and polka...... (and maybe some vodka). I am polish (although i live in the US), glad to see we still have wolves

[Deleted]

Wolves are revered in European folklore. So I don't know where you're getting it. The difference is that we won't risk getting our people getting killed by them.

[Raiju]

They're present all over the world, but in Europe especially they are painted as an evil, destructive force and often appear in fairytales, stories and folklore as malevolent and destructive beasts. In American folklore and stories, they're more of a mix of the old European views and the newer, American views of them as noble, intelligent creatures to be admired.

They're not exactly iconic in Japanese or Chinese folklore or stories, ditto for Middle Eastern.

I've lived across Europe and yours is the first I've heard the idea that there aren't a significant amount of Europeans that consider wolves as 'nobe/intelligent'

You're basically ignoring the negative views in the US & the positive views in the EU to make an argument here.

[nextormento]

I don't see much of a difference

Wolves are enjoyed and reviled on both areas. Both have engaged in hunting them out of the land. Both are reintroducing them in some areas with varying grades of success.
And both have traditional stories and myths casting them in a positive light too.

[Deleted]

Hardly something European or American.

Wolves are present in nearly every country in the Northern Henisphere.

No, they have been driven to extinction in Western/Central Europe.

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There have been too many dogs eaten by wolves around where I live for wolves to get much sympathy from me.

Nothing wrong with that.

[Techno-Druid]

Hardly something European or American.

Wolves are present in nearly every country in the Northern Henisphere. From the Middle East to Japan. Any country with agriculture they are seen as a nuisance and culled. Education is really the only difference in how they are managed or protected.

Before wolves were driven to extinction in Japan due to introduced diseases, they were actually revered because they controlled wild boar, sika deer and rodents and therefore controlled the level of pests on Japanese farms.

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people kill off wolves and then wonder why the ecosystem around them goes to shit

well they do now, people didnt care about overpopulation of game wildlife in ye olden

but now that deer are literally causing droughts in cali and other random problems wherever in the world, people start realizing the importance of predators

[Kalis]

Wolves I have no problem with.

Villa however...

[Karamaru]

Sadly, we don't have wolves in the Netherlands.

We did have one visiting from Germany once that crossed the border and was spotted near a village.
The press talked about it for at least 2 weeks.

indeed and then it got hit with a car other than that they are beautiful animals and are worth protecting.

[Zelk]

Never like Wolves. That orange is such an ugly colour

[May90]

I think both in Europe and in the US wolves can have both "noble" and "evil" image, depending on the context they are talked about - but maybe in the US there is more focus on the "noble" part, since wolves never posed much of a threat to anyone here, while in Europe wolves have been an ultimate predator and seriously competed with hunters, and even attacked them every now and then.

Much like with kangaroos: outside of Australia they are curious beautiful animals, while in Australia they are almost considered pests. You have a much better image of an animal if you see it only on National Geographic, than if it interferes with your everyday life.

[Shadowferal]

Fenris is my ancient god of hunters in a setting I was making that recognized the demonization of old gods and was trying to get back in touch with them.

[draynay]

Around here its all Coyotes, they're much smaller and coexist with people a lot better. We don't pay them much mind, you just have to know if you let your cats out at night you risk never seeing them again. They're not a danger to people, there is virtually no livestock in urban/suburban areas - we had chickens and no coyotes ever tried to get at them in their coop.

Wolves are more distant, its easier to appreciate their value when they're hundreds of miles north of here. Tommo is probably closest to the truth, that the wolves are not at our doorsteps, there is enough space for them to roam and enough for them to eat for their clashes with humans to be fewer in the states than in europe. Where the wolves are closer is where the attitudes toward them are probably quite similar here and across the sea.