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Review
. 2025 Apr 23;15(9):1196.
doi: 10.3390/ani15091196.

Perception Toward Wolves Are Driven by Economic Status and Religion Across Their Distribution Range

Dipanjan Naha  1 , Stefanie Döringer  2   3 , Marco Heurich  2   4   5
Affiliations
Review

Perception Toward Wolves Are Driven by Economic Status and Religion Across Their Distribution Range

Dipanjan Naha et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

Effective conservation of large mammals depends on how people perceive them. Grey wolves have a widespread distribution globally, and their recent recolonization of human-dominated landscapes offers an excellent opportunity to understand the heterogeneity in their perception across continents. Our analysis included all quantitative studies (118 articles) conducted in 35 countries through a systematic review process, published globally between 1980-2023 and indexed in Web of Science and Google Scholar. Fifty-four percent of the studies reported a negative perception toward wolves. Most studies conducted in Asia reported a negative perception, while 56% of studies conducted in Europe and 48% in North America reported a positive perception. Fifty-four percent of studies from Western Europe and forty percent of studies from Slavic Russian cultural regions reported positive perceptions. Respondents from low-income countries elicited the most negative perceptions. We identified the predominant religion and economic status of a country as dominant factors determining perception. Studies conducted in countries with Hinduism as the predominant religion reported a negative perception toward wolves. We recommend that future studies on human-wolf interactions must prioritize regions within central Europe, parts of Asia, and Russia. A global human-wolf coexistence strategy should consider the social factors driving attitude toward the species.

Keywords: attitude; carnivore; coexistence; review; social drivers; tolerance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Adapted PRISMA flow diagram summarizing total articles found and total articles included in final analysis of perceptions toward wolves. To view the license for this work please visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (accessed on 17 April 2025).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Geographic distribution of published research on perception toward grey wolves (1980–2023).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Temporal scale of published articles on perception toward grey wolves between 1980 and 2023.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Percentage of published articles on perception toward grey wolves across continents between 1980 and 2023.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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