Speak for WolvesWolves, Rewilding, and Fear: Lessons from Evolutionary History for Coexisting with Predators Today
The human brain is wired to either fight, flee, or freeze in the presence of predators. This is an adaptive aspect of our fear response found all vertebrate species. However, being in a constant state of fight-flight-freeze is incapacitating and throughout our evolutionary history human coexistence with apex predators was facilitated through specialized knowledge (e.g., tools, shared information) and habituation to the presence of these animals.
At issue is that over much of the planet today, and particularly in regions of western Europe and the United States, predators such as gray wolves were nearly completely extirpated; with a loss of these animals came a loss of habituation and the knowledge required to coexist with them, which can lead to dread and a concomitantly reduced tolerance to their presence.
In this talk, I will describe how humans coexist(ed) in landscapes with Carnivora in deep time (Pleistocene), recent history (Holocene), and now (the Anthropocene). I evaluate how fear in current circumstances of lost knowledge can lead to reduced tolerance in regions such as the American West where apex predators such as wolves are returning because of conservation successes (e.g., Endangered Species Act, rewilding campaigns). I will use the Colorado wolf restoration campaign as a case study and argue that insights from our evolutionary past and the neurobiology of fear can provide tenets for rewilding and coexistence that rest on a deep understanding of knowledge and habituation.
Dr. Joanna Lambert is a scientist and tenured professor of wildlife ecology and conservation biology at the University of Colorado – Boulder, where she also serves as Director of the American Canid Project and the Wild Animals and Humans Laboratory.
Born and raised in industrial England, and an immigrant to the rust belt of the United States, Joanna spent her formative years observing animals in heavily urbanized landscapes. She has spent her adult life making up for this by traveling to some of the planet’s most remote regions to study the behavior and ecology of wild animals in wild places.
Her work has now taken her to all 7 continents, but a major focus of her research has been on equatorial Africa where she studies primates such as chimpanzees and the American West where she studies carnivores. She has published several books and hundreds of peer-reviewed articles on her research and serves as editor for several international science journals.
For her efforts, she has been elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science as well as an Elected Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London – the institution where Charles Darwin first presented his theory of evolution.
In addition to being a field scientist and educator, Joanna is also a conservation practitioner and activist. In this capacity, she serves as a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Species Survival Commission, as an advisor to the United Nations Environmental Program, and sits on the Board of Directors for the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project.
In her spare time, Joanna spends as much time as she can off-grid in wild and rugged places, preferably on a horse and with her dogs, striving for optimism and solutions in a challenging world.
Instagram: @Joanna.e.Lambert
Twitter: @Joanna_Lambert1
Facebook: Joanna Elizabeth Lambert
Speak for Wolves 