Research Articles

Internet Search

• Citation: Llaneza, L., López-Bao, J.V. and Sazatornil, V. (2012), Insights into wolf presence in human-dominated landscapes: the relative role of food availability, humans and landscape attributes. Diversity and Distributions, 18: 459-469. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2011.00869.x

I found this article through the means of Google Scholar. At first, I simply just typed in wolves but the results were too broad and I did not find any of them interesting. I resorted to asking ChatGPT about some keywords and topics that I can use in my search. The topic that I found the most interesting was human-wolf conflicts. So I searched this up in Google Scholar and found interesting articles until I finally narrowed it down to this one. The main purpose of this study is to understand the most important human or environmental factor that influences the presence of wolves in the region. The method they used was to collect data on Iberian wolves living in human-dominated landscapes and then see which of these three factors influenced wolf presence the most: food availability, humans, and landscape attributes.

The conclusion that the scientists found were that the landscape attributes in human-dominated regions played the biggest role over recent history in determining the presence and occurrence of wolves. This article helps me understand the impact that the environment has on wolves. If wolves are located in an environment that lacks food and also has the presence of humans, their population is more likely to be lower. Though I feel like I can make a story with this article, I believe that I can find better articles because this one did not give me as much information on human-wolf conflicts that I hoped for. Overall, this article educated me on wolves need for a suitable environment.

Library Search

• Citation: Marquard-Petersen, Ulf. “Behaviors of High Arctic Wolves in Response to Humans.” ARCTIC, vol. 75, no. 3, 11 Sept. 2022, pp. 378–389, doi:10.14430/arctic75966. https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=1751bebe-65a1-4bc1-bebe-bd34e247c9bf%40redis

I found this article through UC Santa Barbara's academic search complete on their library website. This was a very useful tool because I simply entered in the keywords that I wanted to research more about and it gave me many results related to my topic of human-wolf conflicts. It took longer than using Google Scholar because it was my first time using the library's database so I was confused at first. The study focuses on determining wolf behaviors in the Arctic region and how humans responded to them. The methods used were using an existing database of human-wolf interactions and placing each interaction into a category such as the wolf coming to camp or following people.

The results and conclusion indicate that the presence of wolves were purely out of curiosity. In most cases, a wolf did not harm humans but humans would kill the wolves. Overall, the study offers a stronger need for conservation methods due to the instable relationship between humans and wolves in the arctic region. This helps me understand more about the curious nature of wolves and how humans often have a misconception of how aggressive wolves are. I think I can make a good story out of this article because I can use a researcher visiting the area as the protagonist and explain his experience encountering wolves. Overall, I really enjoyed this article as it introduced me to how wolves are often unfamiliar and curious about the presence of humans but also how badly humans treat wolves.