JACKSON, Wyo. — As highlighted in the 2023 Jackson Hole Wildlife Symposium, now is the time to talk about coexistence, particularly with large carnivores. However, experts suggest conversations about conflict are more rooted in the “cultural and social baggage” placed on predators than they are in the ecological considerations of coexistence.
According to Aaron Bott, a wolf biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, large carnivores are consistently interpreted as cultural and emotional symbols despite being biological entities.
“We’re not here to talk about the wolf, although we think that we are.”
Aaron Bott
“We’re not here to talk about the grizzly bear,” Bott said in the Wildlife Symposium’s panel on coexistence with large carnivores. “We’re not here to talk about the wolf, although we think that we are. The reason why wolves are so charismatic is because of the underlying values, the worldviews and mythologies. It’s not about the wolf.”
Ben Williamson, executive director of the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative (NRCC), agrees with the idea that predators represent more to people than just a keystone species.
“Wolves and grizzly bears trigger the imagination in ways that other animals don’t,” Williamson told Buckrail.
According to Williamson, having the self-awareness to reflect on what narratives or perspectives inform different communities is an important piece in the larger picture of conservation work, and is critical to building resilience in economic, political and social systems that also promote coexistence.
Peyton Curlee Griffin, president and co-treasurer of the NRCC, agrees, and also pushes for the importance of separating those cultural narratives from the reality of the ecological world.
“Carnivores in particular, I think, invoke the ultimate sense of wilderness,” Griffin told Buckrail. “They are very symbolically rich…But if the goal here is to coexist with this place, we really need to keep large carnivores because they are essential ecologically.”
This ecological significance is something that Bott advocates for through relationship-building with both anti-wolf and pro-wolf individuals. Bott’s family has been in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) for six generations, and while his research supports large carnivores like wolves, he says he grew up in a community with a heavy dislike of predators. He sees both sides of the coin, and in his work has developed an understanding of what large carnivores represent to both the “Old West” and the “New West.”
Bott suggests that traditionalists around the GYE see the presence of wolves as a threat to their way of life, while more progressives see wolves as the epitome of the natural world in its wildness. These differing viewpoints, Bott argues, is one of the main forces behind inconsistent management policies seen in the GYE.
But this doesn’t mean that coexistence is forever irreconcilable. The NRCC, Bott and other experts say they believe it’s still possible for GYE communities to find common ecological ground in the region.
Matt Barnes, former ranch manager and current research associate, emphasizes that cultural perspectives don’t have to be incompatible. Barnes has been part of the effort to successfully reintroduce wolves into Colorado and advocates for wolf-livestock coexistence based on scientific information.
“You can simultaneously see a grizzly bear as a monster in the dark, as an animal with its own agency and as the oldest divinity in the northern hemisphere, because all of those are true,” Barnes said at the Wildlife Symposium.
Barnes is currently leading the NRCC’s initiative to achieve ecological restoration through reintegration of wildness and coexistence with wolves, bears and cougars, in addition to his continued work with ranchers on rangeland planning and monitoring.
To learn more about the best-practices for large carnivore coexistence, stay tuned for our continued conversation with the NRCC, conservation experts and local ranchers.
