Wolves have been feared and hated by societies for centuries.

Much of the hysteria revolves around the myths of werewolves (a topic that will one day appear on this website, I’m sure.) Humans have built into their subconcious a terrifying creature that is frankly, not accurate. (Not saying a wolf has never attacked a human before. But most of the time, the wolf wants to be left alone.}

Now, those attitudes are changing, as wolves are proving their usefulness to modern society.

Ecologist Rolf Peterson remembers driving remote stretches of road in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and seeing areas strewn with deer carcasses. But that changed after gray wolves arrived in the region from Canada and Minnesota.

“When wolves moved in during the 1990s and 2000s, the deer-vehicle collisions went way down,” said the Michigan Tech researcher.

Recently, another team of scientists has gathered data about road collisions and wolf movements in Wisconsin to quantify how the arrival wolves there affected the frequency of deer-auto collisions. They found it created what scientists call “a landscape of fear.”

“In a pretty short period of time, once wolves colonize a county, deer vehicle collisions go down about 24%,” said Dominic Parker, a natural resources economist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and co-author of their new study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Both thinning of the deer population by wolves and behavior changes in fearful deer are factors in the drop-off, Parker said.

“When you have a major predator around, it impacts how the prey behave,” he said. “Wolves use linear features of a landscape as travel corridors, like roads, pipelines and stream beds. Deer learn this and can adapt by staying away.”

Associated Press

How interesting – the wolf can save us from the hassle of hitting a deer – and these beautiful creatures can even save lives thanks to their presence.

Less deer mean less deer on roads. Who would be against that?