Skip to main navigation Skip to main content
The University of Southampton
Geography and Environmental Science

Hannah Tranter (BSc): Wolf-shepherd conflicts in the European Alps

The Grey Wolf has returned to some parts of the Swiss and French Alps- rekindling age old conflicts between shepherds and this iconic carnivore, with the added ingredients of international conservation law, politics and environmentalism.

BSc final year student Hannah Tranter worked as volunteer shepherd as part of her third year research project. She kept an observational diary, found out about the attitudes and motivations of other volunteers, and carried out in-depth interviews with the shepherds whose livestock and way of life are threatened.  Her work exposed the tensions between the wolf, the shepherd and the other interested parties, and at the same time revealed, through personal experience, the hardship and fear that comes with living on the land. Hannah and her supervisor will be submitting a paper based on her research to an international conservation journal.

Privacy Settings