Study busts big bad myth that wolves are growing fearless of humans

After years of being hunting to near-extinction, wolves are making a comeback in some of their historical ranges in Europe and North America. With their return comes a growing concern that the predators are moving too close to human settlements, becoming bolder and less fearful of people. Researchers set out to see if that’s true, running a four-month-long experiment in Poland’s Tuchola Forest. Their findings suggest that the “big bad wolf,” as portrayed in popular culture, still has a healthy fear of humans. Tuchola Forest in northern Poland is representative of the human-dominated wildlife landscape wolves are reoccupying across Europe, with a mix of pine plantations, farms and towns, the authors write in their recent study. Wolves (Canis lupus) were first spotted there in 2005; today, t