Public attitude and intention toward engaging in reintroduction of wolves to Japan.

Reintroducing apex predators is an important approach in ecosystem restoration; however, it is challenging. Wolves were exterminated in Japan around 1900, and since then, there has been a lack of top predators in the country's ecosystems. Currently, the wild ungulate population in the country has been increasing, causing agricultural and forest damage. This has triggered an ongoing debate among researchers and NGOs on whether wolves should be reintroduced to promote self-regulating biodiverse ecosystems. We conducted a nation-wide survey to understand public attitude towards wolf reintroduction (WR) in Japan. We sent online questionnaires to 88,318 citizens across the country. Among the 12,028 respondents, excluding those with invalid or incomplete answers as well as unqualified samples, we obtained and analyzed 7,500 responses, representative of Japanese citizens in terms of some key socio-demographic attributes. More respondents disagreed with WR (39.9%) than agreed (17.1%), while many respondents (43.0%) were undecided. Structural equation modeling revealed that risk perceptions affected public attitudes, implying that the greater the perceived threats of wolf attacks, the lesser the likelihood of people to support WR. In contrast, attitude towards wolves (e.g., "I like wolves") influenced by wildlife value orientation and beliefs about the ecological role of wolves (e.g., controlling deer populations) positively affected public attitude towards WR. Those who had a positive attitude towards WR showed intentions to engage in behaviors that support WR. Our study suggests that dissemination of information related to the ecological role of wolves, and the development of a more mutualistic mindset in people would positively influence public support for WR in Japan. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.