Scientists oppose media campaign against wolves

Media information about wolves is often false, misleading and deceiving, scientists wrote in an open letter to Polish media. Unverified information harms nature, causes fear in society and unnecessarily engages emergency services, they warned.

The experts noted in the letter that interest in the topic of wolves has been growing in the media for some time now. "This is understandable due to their increasing range of occurrence in Poland, as well as the important role of this species - both in ecosystems and culture," they wrote.

However, they expressed concern that information published in the media – local and national – about wolves is often untrue and misleading. The media regularly publish descriptions of events involving wolves that have not been verified by experts and that either did not happen at all or were distorted to present these animals in an unfavourable light, as a dangerous and harmful species, they wrote.

They cited recent reports of alleged wolf attacks on humans as an example. "There is no evidence of their authenticity, and more detailed analyses, including interviews with the 'victims' and inspection of the scene, raise doubts that they actually took place," the authors of the letter said. They noted that it is no longer possible to reverse the mass disinformation of public opinion after such media publications.

In the letter they also appealed for "information about wolves, especially sensational reports of their unusual behaviour towards people, to be carefully verified before publication."

"Only responsible and fact-based journalism will be able to increase the ecological awareness of citizens and minimize conflicts between wolves and people. Instead of instilling fear, we propose education and declare our help in this regard," commented Prof. Michał Żmihorski, director of the Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, quoted in a press release sent to PAP on Monday.

An open letter from the scientific community to the Polish media regarding the reliable reporting of information on wolves was signed by 21 scientists involved in nature conservation, including the protection and research of wolves, representing, among others, the Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Nature Conservation of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Faculty of Biology of the University of Warsaw.

Scientists have pointed out that media reports also regularly mischaracterize the behavior of wolves, attributing to them cruelty to animals they hunt or intentional harm and disruption to rural communities. Publications are also common in which the fact that a species that is evolutionarily designed to obtain food almost exclusively in this way has hunted down a prey item (roe deer, deer) is presented as a sensation, scientists have pointed out.

In their opinion, the new trend of using artificial intelligence to generate images of wolves in unusual environments and situations (e.g. unnaturally large wolf families walking among houses) is also “particularly deceptive”.

According to the authors of the letter, all of these materials are generally published using emotional, pejorative language, where the mere presence of wolves in a given area is referred to as "prowling" or even "terrorizing residents." All of this deepens and perpetuates irrational fear and aversion to wolves in public opinion.

They emphasized that the sources and goals of spreading false information about wolves in the media are difficult to identify. "However, it can be assumed that people and organizations interested in restoring the possibility of legal wolf hunting in Poland play an important role here," the scientists noted.

Regardless of their origin, false content should not be disseminated because it is harmful to the quality of social dialogue, to the protection of nature, to the standards of journalism, they assessed.

Presenting manipulated information about wolves perpetuates the belief in the public that there are too many of them, that they cause significant damage and are a threat to humans. Incorrect interpretation of wolf behavior and misunderstanding of their role in ecosystems can encourage recipients to "take matters into their own hands," and thus to behave irrationally, and even dangerously and illegally.

The authors of the letter reminded us that we are already observing a high level of illegal killing of wolves in Poland. And lowering the protection status of wolves in the Bern Convention poses a serious threat to the nature conservation system in Europe, especially in the era of biodiversity crisis. Wolves play a key role in ecosystems - their protection is essential for maintaining biodiversity.

In addition, increased culling may lead to the breakdown of wolf family structures, which paradoxically may result in the intensification of conflicts between wolves and humans. In Poland, there are procedures for managing conflict situations, and decisions regarding species protection should be based on facts, not media smears, the scientists assessed.

The appeal also emphasized that false information about wolves may result in unnecessary involvement of nature conservation institutions and services in cases that ultimately turn out to be made up. As a result, in situations that really require involvement and urgent intervention, also due to the safety of people, the relevant services may not have enough time and resources.

“This disinformation – regardless of its harmful environmental dimension – is therefore also a game of public safety,” they noted. Therefore, in their opinion, spreading alarmist reports about fictitious threats from wolves should be treated analogously to reporting a non-existent fire for fun.

The media should verify reports and comment on them in accordance with scientific research, experts appealed. "We appeal for information about wolves, and especially sensational reports about their unusual behavior towards people, to be meticulously verified before publication. In matters of wolf numbers, their interactions with other species, and conflicts with humans, we recommend using scientific knowledge and the experience of scientific institutions that study wolves," they wrote.

In their opinion, the genetic, telemetry and behavioural research conducted by these institutions, the analysis of the wolves’ diet, diseases and parasites, using proven scientific methodology, as well as the subsequent interpretation of these results based on available literature, are the only way to generate reliable knowledge about these predators, as well as the basis for managing their population and building strategies to mitigate conflicts with humans.

That is why it is worth using the knowledge of scientists dealing with animal ecology, nature conservation, and the functioning of ecosystems. "Representatives of other professions and interest groups, due to the rapid progress of science, do not always have the current knowledge necessary for the proper verification of incidents involving wolves," the authors of the letter to the media assessed.

"The future of wolves and nature conservation in Poland depends largely on your reliability and sense of responsibility for providing reliable content to recipients," they concluded. (PAP)

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