Protection of large carnivores in Poland and Europe

People in highly developed countries support the protection of large predators, as long as they are far from them. They love watching movies about lions in Africa. They support programs for tigers in India or the giant panda in China with their donations and signatures. Meanwhile, the attitude of Europeans toward local large predators (brown bear, gray wolf, Eurasian lynx and wolverine) has been changing for the worse for the past few years. Successive attacks on livestock have led Finland and Germany to decide to cull the wolf. This is a retreat from the philosophy of human coexistence with the largest carnivores that prevailed just a dozen years ago [1, 2].

Paradise lost for large predators? The first decade of the 21st century.

In 2014. 1/3 of Europe had a lynx, wolf or bear. Spain and Portugal additionally boasted the pardel (Iberian lynx), and the Scandinavian countries – the wolverine. A year later, the fauna of Poland and its neighbors was enriched by the golden jackal. Their numbers were growing, yet conflicts with humans were unheard of. Our country was exporting wolves to the west. It was a bastion of bears, which were hunted by neighbors. It was the site of successful lynx reintroductions in successive regions. It preserved key ecological corridors for large mammals, as well as creating an effective network of passes over vehicular roads. Scientists attributed the reasons for the successes to both uniform Community law (especially the Habitat Directive) and Polish regulations [2].

Protection zones

An excellent, peculiarly Polish legislative concept turned out to be the one started in the 1980s. In the 1970s. The creation of protection zones for the breeding grounds of selected species, which is even more effective than large mammals in protecting top predators among birds, for example: the white-tailed eagle, peregrine falcon, eagle owl and black stork. It is less effective in helping the gadwall, osprey, as well as non-predators, such as forest chickadees. Nor has it saved the Polish populations of the merganser.

The wildly different effects of analogous activities plus the rising temperature of public discussions about the status of large carnivores have prompted researchers to take a closer look at how they function in Europe. We know a great deal about the role of key carnivores in national parks and extensive reserves. One of the world’s most important cloud laboratories remains the Bialowieza Forest. Instead, there is a dramatic lack of research in densely populated areas subject to urbanization, agriculture, industrial forestry or the erection of windmills. The Carpathian Mountains, where protected areas are adjacent to thriving tourist centers and commercial forests, can play a significant role here [1, 6].

Typical arguments for large predators

National and international laws protect apex predators for a number of reasons. The scientific definitions of this group show that it includes species that are deprived of enemies other than humans, representatives of their own species and old age at maturity [5]. Since it was our ancestors who so depleted their populations and deprived them of habitat, we have a special responsibility to rectify this state of affairs. It has been known for decades that large carnivores are shield (umbrella) species, and their protection safeguards entire ecosystems, with all species known and unknown to science. Their presence regulates life in the area, just as herbivore activity patterns protect forest nurseries, grain and root crop fields.

We continue to discover new benefits of top predators. We are beginning to study their feces, spit and other traces to better monitor concentrations of various contaminants, from pesticides and heavy metals to microplastics. We are paying more attention to the impact of apex carnivores on their mid-sized competitors. Apex predators reduce the numbers of the latter through direct killing, competition for food and breeding sites. We are counting on the help of the eagle owl, the white-tailed eagle and the mammals of the big four to curb the expansion of invasive alien, mid-sized species such as the raccoon, raccoon and vison. Public opinion is divided on the impact of large carnivores on public health [3, 5, 6].

Dangerous links: climate change and Europe’s large predators

The successful restoration of the big four in the EU and Norway, as well as the rescue of the pardel, endemic to the Iberian Peninsula, have been great successes for environmentalists: scientists and activists. The question is how sustainable, given the correction of climate change, further habitat loss and the politicization of the apex predator debate.

Some clues can provide us with data from paleontologists and archaeologists. According to them, the Pleistocene fauna was much richer in species of both herbivores and their natural regulators. Top predators of Europe, including the lands of today’s Poland, were saber-toothed cats(Homotherium, Smilodon) , cave lion, cave crocuta and cave bear. In addition, other species of bears (Himalayan bear plus several extinct ones), leopard, jaguar, a few species of extinct wolves, lycas, cyons or huge raccoons were present on the Old Continent at that time. The fauna of their prey was also richer, including extinct mammoths, mastodonts, tarpanyi aurochs, as well as non-EU survivors of muskoxen or suhaki.

Today, equally diverse ecosystems are known only from areas south of the Sahara. It will not be long before the discussion about what has depleted the European megafauna more severely: climate change or the expansion of more human-like [4, 5].

In the article, I used:

1. Gerber, N., Riesch, F., Bojarska, K., Zetsche, M., Rohwer, N. K., Signer, J., … & Balkenhol, N. (2024). Do recolonising wolves trigger non-consumptive effects in European ecosystems? A review of evidence. Wildlife Biology, 2024(6), e01229.
2. Chapron, G., Kaczensky, P.,… Mysłajek, R., Nowak, S.,… & Boitani, L. (2014). Recovery of large carnivores in Europe’s modern human-dominated landscapes. Science, 346(6216), 1517-1519.
3. van Schaik, T., van Kuijk, M., & Sterck, E. H. (2025). Understanding mesopredator responses to changes in apex predator populations in Europe: implications for the mesopredator release hypothesis. Mammal Review, 55(1), e12357.
4. van Valkenburgh, B., Hayward, M. W., Ripple, W. J., Meloro, C., & Roth, V. L. (2016). The impact of large terrestrial carnivores on Pleistocene ecosystems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(4), 862-867.
5. Wallach, A. D., Izhaki, I., Toms, J. D., Ripple, W. J., & Shanas, U. (2015). What is an apex predator? Oikos, 124(11), 1453-1461.
6. https://www.wwf.pl/sites/default/files/2022-07/WWF_ELC_laymann_ekopress%20DRUK.pdf [accessed 17.01.2026].