Pendulum Swings in Wolf Management Led to Conflict, Illegal Kills, and a Legislated Wolf Hunt

摘要: Rapid change in wildlife populations can challenge managers to promote species conservation while maintaining public support for wildlife. Wolf management during recolonization Wisconsin, United States demonstrates the complexities of inconsistent authority, attitudes, and illegal killing wolves. State authority control depredating wolves oscillated a period intense sociopolitical conflict over wolf status under federal Endangered Species Act. We demonstrate that swings led declining local wolves, possibly unintended backlash more kills legislatively mandated hunt. A new Wildlife Management Matrix illustrates an idealized relationship between lethal options perceptions Moderating drivers policy short periods is essential allow greater flexibility achieving species-specific goals. To our knowledge, this research provides first demonstrated link Act, suggests behavior may be moderated with responsible effective programs. recommend states avoid prescriptive harvest legislation, we suggest incremental shift from state authority.