Wolves are returning across Europe – but not to the UK and Ireland, where public support is lukewarm at best. Ecologists point out their benefits, while farmers worry about their livestock. But another influence on public opinion is rarely discussed: Hollywood’s obsession with the wolf as a monster.
This is a particular issue in places where wolves are native yet have been extinct for centuries. Though wolves once roamed across Britain and Ireland, for most people there today they exist only in stories or on screen. The tropes we absorb through entertainment can carry far more weight than scientific facts, and have an outsized impact on how we think and feel about these animals.
