Wolves and changing perceptions

[WayneLigon]

That would be a good thesis topic. I think a lot of factors contribute to it, but I would guess their closeness to Dogs (Our Best Friend), the associations with the American West, and the idea that they are so much like us - they are a social animal, and a social hunter, but don't have a quasi-disturbing resemblance to us like chimps do. Take all those things, mix in the romantic notions that movies and TV have planted in our heads, and there you go.

 

[Random Bystander]

That would be a good thesis topic. I think a lot of factors contribute to it, but I would guess their closeness to Dogs (Our Best Friend), the associations with the American West, and the idea that they are so much like us - they are a social animal, and a social hunter, but don't have a quasi-disturbing resemblance to us like chimps do. Take all those things, mix in the romantic notions that movies and TV have planted in our heads, and there you go.

Unfortunately for said romantic notions, said movies tend to increase the death rate due to animal attacks. To even a deer, you are not a friendly hand holding some leaves. You are a terrifying, unknown, and probably deadly threat.

 

[sabrinathecat]

It was decades before people in Yellowstone part stopped shooting wolves, even though it was in the park mandate not to harm ANY animal. Modern zoologists have been studying wolves, rather than just shooting them as pests. Don't like the wolves preying on your livestock? Don't move into their territory. Put up a fence good enough to keep them out. Blame your laziness or miserly penny pinching rather than the wolves for doing what comes naturally.