Survey: EU citizens for wolves

European citizens support the protection of wolves, and the majority oppose the killing of wolves under any circumstances. This is the main finding of a survey of adults in six EU countries, commissioned by the Eurogroup for Animals. It is time for politicians to listen to the voice of their voters and to ensure that the species continues to be strictly protected.

The survey, conducted by Savanta ComRes in six EU member states – France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and Finland – aimed to gain a better understanding of the public's perception and attitude towards the protection of wolves across Europe.

• The 6,137 EU citizens who responded to the survey showed overall a high level of support for wolf protection, particularly in Poland, Spain and Italy, and a strong awareness of the benefits of wolves for their local ecosystem. The majority of adults state that the killing of wolves is rarely or never acceptable under certain circumstances, even when they have attacked livestock (55%) or to control their population size (55%).
• While hunters and some member states have called for more flexibility in managing their wolf populations, the EU citizens surveyed are not in agreement. Instead, 86% of respondents across the six countries studied agree that national governments and the EU should fund farmers and equip them with the tools to protect livestock from wolf attacks. 93% of adults agree that wolves have the right to exist in the wild. Similarly, 89% agree that wolves, like foxes, red deer or hares, are part of our natural environment, and 86% agree that wolves should be accepted to live in their respective country.
• At least three quarters of the adults surveyed agree that farmers and people living in rural areas should coexist with wolves and other wild animals without harming them (78%). While 38% believe that wolves pose a risk to humans, only 39% say they know how to behave if they encounter a wolf. According to the survey, it is therefore clear that more needs to be done to educate today's citizens about how they can once again coexist with wolves.
• „This study clearly shows that European citizens strongly support the protection of wolves and oppose their killing under any circumstancessays“, says Reineke Hameleers, CEO of Eurogroup for Animals. „We hope that the EU institutions and the politicians of the member states will now work together to ensure that the current level of protection is maintained, while national and EU funds are made available to support farmers and provide them with innovative tools to protect livestock from wolf attacks and to increase tolerance and social acceptability. Indeed, the recently published EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 calls on member states to commit to not worsening the conservation of protected species such as the wolf.“ 

In the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 , which was drawn up as part of the EU Green Deal, member states are also called upon to ensure that at least 30% of the species and habitats that are currently not in a favourable status reach that category or show a strongly positive trend. Given the high public support for wolf protection, the Eurogroup for Animals encourages countries where the species is increasingly persecuted, such as Finland, France and Germany, to listen to the views of their citizens and to prioritise efforts to protect the species and prevent conflicts with large predators.

Finally, we hope that the forthcoming publication of the European Commission's updated guidance on the strict protection of animal species of Community interest will provide greater clarity to those member states that inappropriately use derogations from the EU Habitats Directive to lethally manage populations of wolves and other protected species.

How it turned out: politics decided against the majority of citizens

Five years after this survey, politics and administration decided exactly the opposite of what the large majority of citizens wanted. On 3 December 2024, the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention approved the EU Commission's motion to downgrade the wolf's protection status from «strictly protected» (Appendix II) to «protected» (Appendix III). The change came into force on 7 March 2025.

On this basis, the EU adjusted its own law: on 24 June 2025, the downgrading of the grey wolf in the EU Habitats Directive came into force. This allows member states to «manage» local wolf populations more flexibly, that is, to authorise kills more easily. Conservation organisations such as Pro Natura criticised the move as scientifically untenable and as the result of massive political influence, since scientific assessments continued to recommend strict protection.

The same pattern is evident in Switzerland, where the will of the people regarding the wolf is repeatedly overridden. On 27 September 2020, the electorate rejected the revised hunting act at the ballot box with 51.9 per cent. They wanted neither the killing of protected species “on stock” nor the erosion of the protection of wolf, beaver, lynx and other animals. Despite this clear No, wolf protection was subsequently relaxed step by step: first through the hunting ordinance, for which Federal Councillor Albert Rösti is responsible within the DETEC, then with the renewed revision of the hunting act, which enabled preventive killings, the proactive regulation of entire packs and population upper limits. In Valais alone, several dozen wolves were killed between September 2024 and January 2025, in some cases using controversial methods.

This raises a fundamental question: what is a popular decision still worth if what was intended is implemented shortly afterwards anyway, by way of ordinance and legislation? Direct democracy depends on the result at the ballot box being respected. If a No is circumvented in this way, it undermines not only wolf protection, but trust in participation itself. The high level of public approval for the wolf, demonstrated by both this survey and the popular vote, played no discernible role in any of these decisions.

Further reading: The battle over the wolf: why downgrading its protection status is legally and scientifically questionable