Human attitudes towards Sweden's large carnivores : attitudes among students at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Sammanfattning: With a growing population of Sweden’s large carnivores, brown bear (Ursus arctos), wolf (Canis lupus), lynx (Lynx lynx) and wolverine (Gulo gulo), conflicts may become more frequent, both between human and carnivore, and also human against human. Because of this, it becomes increasingly important to monitor people’s attitudes towards large carnivores and get a view over how different factors affect how people value wildlife and management of wildlife. The aim of this study is to compare how different factors affect people’s attitudes towards the large carnivores of Sweden. This was done by an investigating survey among the students of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala. It was found that students at SLU are generally positive to the conservation of Sweden’s large carnivores. Respondents showed low avoidance of carnivore territory, which can indicate low fear of these species. The higher proportion of respondents would be willing to pay for the conservation of these carnivores. This positive attitude, in combination with SLU’s environmental orientation, can be a positive indication for future conservation management of Sweden’s large carnivores.