Niemiec Rebecca, Berl Richard E W, Gonzalez Mireille, Teel Tara, Camara Cassiopeia, Collins Matthew, Salerno Jonathan, Crooks Kevin, Schultz Courtney, Breck Stewart, Hoag Dana
Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
PeerJ. 2020 May 7;8:e9074. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9074. eCollection 2020.
In the state of Colorado, a citizen ballot initiative to reintroduce gray wolves () is eliciting polarization and conflict among multiple stakeholder and interest groups. Given this complex social landscape, we examined the social context surrounding wolf reintroduction in Colorado as of 2019. We used an online survey of 734 Coloradans representative in terms of age and gender, and we sampled from different regions across the state, to examine public beliefs and attitudes related to wolf reintroduction and various wolf management options. We also conducted a content analysis of media coverage on potential wolf reintroduction in 10 major daily Colorado newspapers from January 2019, when the signature-gathering effort for the wolf reintroduction initiative began, through the end of January 2020, when the initiative was officially added to the ballot. Our findings suggest a high degree of social tolerance or desire for wolf reintroduction in Colorado across geographies, stakeholder groups, and demographics. However, we also find that a portion of the public believes that wolves would negatively impact their livelihoods, primarily because of concerns over the safety of people and pets, loss of hunting opportunities, and potential wolf predation on livestock. These concerns-particularly those related to livestock losses-are strongly reflected in the media. We find that media coverage has focused only on a few of the many perceived positive and negative impacts of wolf reintroduction identified among the public. Our findings highlight the need to account for this diversity of perspectives in future decisions and to conduct public outreach regarding likely impacts of wolf reintroduction.
在科罗拉多州，一项旨在重新引入灰狼（ ）的公民投票倡议在多个利益相关者和利益集团之间引发了两极分化和冲突。鉴于这种复杂的社会局面，我们研究了截至2019年科罗拉多州灰狼重新引入的社会背景。我们对734名在年龄和性别方面具有代表性的科罗拉多州居民进行了在线调查，并从该州不同地区进行抽样，以研究公众对灰狼重新引入及各种灰狼管理方案的看法和态度。我们还对2019年1月（灰狼重新引入倡议开始征集签名之时）至2020年1月底（该倡议正式列入投票之时）期间科罗拉多州10家主要日报上有关灰狼重新引入可能性的媒体报道进行了内容分析。我们的研究结果表明，科罗拉多州各地、各利益相关者群体及不同人口统计特征的人群对灰狼重新引入具有高度的社会容忍度或意愿。然而，我们也发现，一部分公众认为灰狼会对他们的生计产生负面影响，主要是因为担心人和宠物的安全、狩猎机会的丧失以及灰狼对牲畜的潜在捕食。这些担忧——尤其是与牲畜损失相关的担忧——在媒体上得到了强烈反映。我们发现，媒体报道仅关注了公众所认识到的灰狼重新引入的众多正面和负面影响中的少数几个。我们的研究结果强调，在未来的决策中需要考虑到这种观点的多样性，并就灰狼重新引入可能产生的影响开展公众宣传。
